The Questions of Tenure
Tenure is the abortion issue of the academy, igniting arguments and inflaming near-religious passions. To some, tenure is essential to academic freedom and a magnet to recruit and retain top-flight faculty. To others, it is an impediment to professorial accountability and a constraint on institutional flexibility and finances. But beyond anecdote and opinion, what do we really know about how tenure works?

In this unique book, Richard Chait and his colleagues offer the results of their research on key empirical questions. Are there circumstances under which faculty might voluntarily relinquish tenure? When might new faculty actually prefer non-tenure track positions? Does the absence of tenure mean the absence of shared governance? Why have some colleges abandoned tenure while others have adopted it? Answers to these and other questions come from careful studies of institutions that mirror the American academy: research universities and liberal arts colleges, including both highly selective and less prestigious schools.

Lucid and straightforward, The Questions of Tenure offers vivid pictures of academic subcultures. Chait and his colleagues conclude that context counts so much that no single tenure system exists. Still, since no academic reward carries the cachet of tenure, few institutions will initiate significant changes without either powerful external pressures or persistent demands from new or disgruntled faculty.

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The Questions of Tenure
Tenure is the abortion issue of the academy, igniting arguments and inflaming near-religious passions. To some, tenure is essential to academic freedom and a magnet to recruit and retain top-flight faculty. To others, it is an impediment to professorial accountability and a constraint on institutional flexibility and finances. But beyond anecdote and opinion, what do we really know about how tenure works?

In this unique book, Richard Chait and his colleagues offer the results of their research on key empirical questions. Are there circumstances under which faculty might voluntarily relinquish tenure? When might new faculty actually prefer non-tenure track positions? Does the absence of tenure mean the absence of shared governance? Why have some colleges abandoned tenure while others have adopted it? Answers to these and other questions come from careful studies of institutions that mirror the American academy: research universities and liberal arts colleges, including both highly selective and less prestigious schools.

Lucid and straightforward, The Questions of Tenure offers vivid pictures of academic subcultures. Chait and his colleagues conclude that context counts so much that no single tenure system exists. Still, since no academic reward carries the cachet of tenure, few institutions will initiate significant changes without either powerful external pressures or persistent demands from new or disgruntled faculty.

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Overview

Tenure is the abortion issue of the academy, igniting arguments and inflaming near-religious passions. To some, tenure is essential to academic freedom and a magnet to recruit and retain top-flight faculty. To others, it is an impediment to professorial accountability and a constraint on institutional flexibility and finances. But beyond anecdote and opinion, what do we really know about how tenure works?

In this unique book, Richard Chait and his colleagues offer the results of their research on key empirical questions. Are there circumstances under which faculty might voluntarily relinquish tenure? When might new faculty actually prefer non-tenure track positions? Does the absence of tenure mean the absence of shared governance? Why have some colleges abandoned tenure while others have adopted it? Answers to these and other questions come from careful studies of institutions that mirror the American academy: research universities and liberal arts colleges, including both highly selective and less prestigious schools.

Lucid and straightforward, The Questions of Tenure offers vivid pictures of academic subcultures. Chait and his colleagues conclude that context counts so much that no single tenure system exists. Still, since no academic reward carries the cachet of tenure, few institutions will initiate significant changes without either powerful external pressures or persistent demands from new or disgruntled faculty.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674016040
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 02/01/2005
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 5.69(w) x 8.94(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Richard P. Chait is Professor of Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Charles T. Clotfelter is Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Richard P. Chait

1. Why Tenure? Why Now?

Richard P. Chait

2. What Is Current Policy?

Cathy A. Trower

3. Does Faculty Governance Differ at Colleges with Tenure and Colleges without Tenure?

Richard P. Chait

4. Can the Tenure Process Be Improved?

R. Eugene Rice, Mary Deane Sorcinelli

5. What Happened to the Tenure Track?

Roger G. Baldwin, Jay L. Chronister

6. How Are Faculty Faring in Other Countries?

Philip G. Altbach

7. Can Colleges Competitively Recruit Faculty without the Prospect of Tenure?

Cathy A. Trower

8. Can Faculty Be Induced to Relinquish Tenure?

Charles T. Clotfelter

9. Why Is Tenure One College's Problem and Another's Solution?

William T. Mallon

10. How Might Data Be Used?

Cathy A. Trower, James P. Honan

11. Gleanings

Richard P. Chait

Contributors

Index

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