If You’re Wondering Why NTT Faculty Don’t Support Tenure

John Warner:

Administrators and non-tenure-track faculty have at least one thing in common: Both groups appear comfortable with the elimination of tenure.

As reported by Inside Higher Ed, this is according to data collected for Envisioning the Faculty for the 21st Century by Adrianna Kezar and Daniel Maxey, a new-ish book that seeks to further the conversation about what shape faculty roles will take in our changing universities.

I’ve never been an administrator, but I imagine the explanation for their comfort with eliminating tenure is about power, namely, without tenure, administrators have much more freedom to operate.

I don’t attribute nefarious motives here, however. Lack of tenure means administrations could remake faculty to meet the demands of a changing higher education arena. If one sincerely believes that it’s “adapt or die,” it makes sense to desire the maximum freedom to adapt. I’m sure many administrators confronting these challenges believe that eliminating tenure would be a net good for their institutions. It doesn’t mean they’re right (or wrong), but it’s entirely explicable.