TENURE: ARE PROFESSIONS PROTECTED?
The whole concept of “tenure” revolves around the idea of complete, unfettered academic freedom for the professor. It is permanent appointment; it lasts until retirement and is often thought to allow the professor to develop ideas in a protected environment where they do not have to worry about whether or not the ideas may be deemed controversial within a wider community. However, as stated on the National Education Association (NEA) website, it is a myth that this means that tenure “is a lifetime job guarantee.” Tenure, at its most basic core, just means that an academic institution cannot fire a tenured professor without “presenting evidence that the professor is incompetent or behaves unprofessionally.” There is a misconception that if you have tenure, you are untouchable. Conversely, the NEA estimates that around 2 percent of tenured professors are actually dismissed in an average year.
Many University Professors see it differently. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has represented hundreds of tenured candidates who claim unfair dismissal and many of whom, actually, felt censured. There is an argument that tenure actually forces professors to conform to the political views of the institution or field in which they teach, and if they refuse, they are fired.
Below are some examples where even tenure could not save these American professors from dismissal.
STANLEY MOORE (1954) Stanley Moore was a distinguished philosophy professor at Reed College and a victim of McCarthyism. In 1954, Moore was subpoenaed along with other suspected Marxists for his beliefs and his supposed membership of the Communist Party by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). When questioned, Moore pled the Fifth Amendment, resulting in his suspension from the Reed Faculty. He argued that his tenure should have protected his position: “It is an abuse of power for an employer to question an employee about his politics. It is a travesty of justice to do so in an atmosphere created by pressure from influential demagogues.” In August 1954, the college trustees held a hearing to decide Moore's fate, and he lost his job. Reed College issued an apology in 1981, and in 1993 Moore was invited to give a lecture at the college.
H. BRUCE FRANKLIN (1972) Franklin was a highly esteemed Associate Professor of English at Stanford in 1971, where he was accused of inciting anti-Vietnam War protests at the University. In a speech he made at a rally held on campus on February 10 of that year, he condemned the United States government and encouraged the students
to take over the Computation Center. When the police arrived, he told students to “resist police efforts,” resulting in the arrival of the riot police. He was dismissed from the University, becoming, at that time, the only tenured professor to be dismissed from Stanford, starting an enormous conversation about freedom of speech nationwide. The Advisory Board even commented on “Professor Franklin’s exceptional competence as a scholar and teacher” but ruled that dismissal was the only punishment severe enough for the words he had spoken in public. In 1975 he was hired by Rutgers in a full-time position with tenure, and in 1985 he contested his termination at Stanford but was unsuccessful.
WARD L. CHURCHILL (2007) A professor in Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Churchill was dismissed for “scholarly misconduct” and several instances of plagiarism. However, the controversy was how the decision to look into the quality of his work was made. Churchill was due to speak at Hamilton College in 2005 and, in an attempt to discredit him, an essay he had previously written was disseminated. In the article he argued that the September 11 attacks were provoked by U.S. foreign policy and called the World Trade Center victims “little Eichmanns.” This article made the University of Colorado board uneasy and, knowing they couldn’t fire him for these remarks alone, they looked further into his previous work. They found instances of “scholarly misconduct” and so fired him. A faculty report stated, “If a police officer doesn't like the bumper sticker on a driver's car and so stops the driver for speeding, is a ticket justified as long as the driver was really speeding?” Churchill has tried to fight his case in every major court in America but at this point remains unsuccessful.
STEVEN SALAITA (2013-2014) A direct inspiration for If I Forget is the “Steven Salaita Controversy.” In 2013, after receiving negative attention for writing an article refusing to endorse the “Support Our Troops” campaign, Salaita decided to leave his position as a tenured associate professor of English at Virginia Tech. He was then offered a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, after reviewing some of his tweets, Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise decided to revoke the offer. The tweets were considered to be anti-Semitic in nature and provoked some of the University’s donors to anger. The reaction was mixed, but many felt that Salaita’s comments were criticisms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that anti-Zionism was being conflated with anti-Semitism. In 2015, Salaita sued the University on the grounds that there had been a breach of academic freedom. The case was settled out of court for an excess of $800,000.•
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