Value of Tenure

When tenure is awarded, it is in recognition of excellence in scholarship and service to a university over several probationary years. In most large public universities, the tenure decision is based on extensive scrutiny of the candidate by university committees, consultation with internal and external reviewers of the candidate’s work.

The reason behind the massive layoffs at SDSU was not incompetence of tenured professors. As stated by SDSU President Thomas Day, the “deep and narrow” cuts strategy was used in order to reach older professors, who are naturally in higher salary brackets, to “save more money.” Not many people outside SDSU’s administration believe one can “save” a university by removing its pillars.

If it was not for the academic freedom ensued by tenure, political sciences professors teaching Marx’s interpretation of history or Freedman’s free-market economics would be vulnerable to pressures of the right or left, respectively; physics professors teaching the “big bang” theory would be vulnerable to the political strength of creationists, and librarians would be susceptible to the censure of special interest groups when choosing what to keep on their shelves. These accomplishments for humankind would have never flourished and/or been appreciated in a world with no academic freedom.

ELLEN HORN

San Diego