In It’s Time for Tenure to Lose Tenure Wetherbe claims that higher education in the United States is long overdue for a complete overhaul and that abolishing tenure would be the first course of action. While Wetherbe does admit that tenure is not the only reason higher education needs a “radical change”, Wetherbe does claim that “tenure has hamstrung colleges’ ability to fulfill their two fundamental missions of advancing knowledge and disseminating it”.
Wetherbe proclaims that there are two primary reasons to abolish tenure. The first being that universities in the United States historically have had bragging rights when it came to academic superiority. Today, our colleges are losing grown when it comes to research quality and article citations. In 1989 American professors published 37% of the world’s science and engineering articles. Unfortunately since 2009 the United States has experienced a significant decline and because research has always been a prerequisite …show more content…
At the very least changing the system by making it more selective about who earns tenure. Although I do not think it needs to be completely eliminated, I do think Wetherbe does make a good argument suggesting tenure should be replaced with contracts, but only if they do not entirely strip professors of job protections. Even long term contracts, as Wetherbe suggests, would free up resources that can be used to staff according to the university’s needs. If “multiyear” contracts are an incentive, students have a greater chance of getting professors with greater accountability to their students. On the other hand, professors also need some sort of protection from torch bearers that don’t see eye to eye with the fellow educators. The only way to do that is to either keep tenure and as I pointed out before, make it more selective about earns it, or to create a contract system job security is awarded based solely on
Wetherbe proclaims that there are two primary reasons to abolish tenure. The first being that universities in the United States historically have had bragging rights when it came to academic superiority. Today, our colleges are losing grown when it comes to research quality and article citations. In 1989 American professors published 37% of the world’s science and engineering articles. Unfortunately since 2009 the United States has experienced a significant decline and because research has always been a prerequisite …show more content…
At the very least changing the system by making it more selective about who earns tenure. Although I do not think it needs to be completely eliminated, I do think Wetherbe does make a good argument suggesting tenure should be replaced with contracts, but only if they do not entirely strip professors of job protections. Even long term contracts, as Wetherbe suggests, would free up resources that can be used to staff according to the university’s needs. If “multiyear” contracts are an incentive, students have a greater chance of getting professors with greater accountability to their students. On the other hand, professors also need some sort of protection from torch bearers that don’t see eye to eye with the fellow educators. The only way to do that is to either keep tenure and as I pointed out before, make it more selective about earns it, or to create a contract system job security is awarded based solely on