A few days ago
Doesn’t tenure allow some college professors to get away with too much?
Several years ago, I met a guy whose girlfriend had a punk hairdo. She was taking an English comp class at a university. One day after class, the professor made it a point to pull her aside and tell her that she didn’t like her hairstyle! Not only that, but later that semester, the girlfriend’s grades seemed to be hurt in the class, because she had refused to change her hair! When I was in college, I also had some instructors who did a lousy job teaching and who often talked about their personal lives in the classroom. If anything, I learned more through independent study than I did in their classes, so their classes, which were usually required, were actually a waste of money.I know that tenure is supposed to help ensure the professors’ academic freedom, but don’t you think that to some extent they have TOO MUCH freedom? Also, shouldn’t more be done to ensure that the professors are behaving appropriately and are competent teachers?
Top 4 Answers
A few days ago
Favorite Answer
Yes tenured college professors tend to get away with a lot. Whether it’s by poor teaching and/or bizarre statements/antics (Ward Churchill for example), they’re just allowed more freedom because they’ve taught for the school for X amount of years and contributed X amount of research to it.
IMO a tenured status is the worst thing that can happen at a university. Nowhere else in the real-world is there ever a tenured setting because it essentially “allows” the employee to not have to perform to their usual standards and get away with it. I’ve had several tenured professors for my classes and most did an adequate job, but a few simply walked in and did the class on such a half-assed basis.
We should reward people who continue to be with an organization for a long time, but it has to be by some other way other than a tenured status.
2
5 years ago
There can be a very broad range of salaries, depending on whether you teach at a community college, a liberal arts school, a state university, or a major research institution (contrary to what the other individual said, the cost of living has very little bearing on salaries, in most cases; as academics, most of the people I know are offended when they are told that they will be paid less because the local cost of living is lower). I’ve heard of starting salaries as low as about $45,000, and up into the $70,000 range. The big problem is finding a job. English is one of those fields which produces far more Ph.D.s than there are jobs available, so many people end up spending years working multiple adjunct jobs at a time because they can’t find a single full-time position. If you were in a field like accounting, you would be paid more than twice as much and would have your pick of many universities for jobs.
0
A few days ago
People probably shouldn’t be fired for the things you’re talking about. In a tenured system, the professors can still be reprimanded and have their salaries affected for poor performance and/or mildly inappropriate conduct. You also have to remember that at many schools, research is far more important than teaching, so they may keep people around who they know are bad teachers. Finally, you mentioned that you learned more through independent study than in class. You’re supposed to. A college professor’s main role as a teacher is to set an appropriate curriculum – the right books to read, problems to do in math and science classes, etc. Students are responsible for learning that material more than the professors are responsible for teaching it.
2
A few days ago
It depends. If the professor is great in her or his profession than she or he should be reward. However, if the professor misuse her or his power or their skills are incompetent, than it is a problem.
1
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