Tenure Issues in Higher Education

The system of tenure that dominates American higher education has long been a source of controversy. Tenure has been attacked for entrenching a lazy professoriate, more interested in attending faraway conferences and producing unreadable research than in teaching or in developing practical insights, and has long been defended as an absolute necessity for the defense of open intellectual inquiry. The tenure controversy has been sharpened in recent years by several events. The end of mandatory retirement, which was abolished by federal law effective January 1, 1994, has heightened concerns about the productivity and commitment of professors who received tenure long ago and who no longer have the same incentives to invest in long-term reputation. There is also ongoing concern over the steadily rising cost of higher education, which raises the question of what students—as well as the taxpayers who support public institutions of higher education—are getting for their money.