Yeah, tenure definitely a double-edged sword. On the one hand, being able to voice potentially unpopular opinions is important. On the other, having dead weight occupying faculty positions which brilliant younger folk would kill for — folks who would be more productive, more engaged, and contribute more to the world — is…well, maybe not great.
Feels like we could have both by ditching tenure and allowing professors to express their opinions (so long as it doesn’t interfere with teaching, of course).
Anecdotally, my business ethics professor in college was a very open libertarian. I’ll never agree with his politics, but despite that, he was an excellent teacher, and one of the better ones I had at the school overall. On the other hand, none of the classes I had that were run by tenured professors were any good, with one professor even giving us the wrong exam once and having us complete it anyway, even though it had material we weren’t even expected to know.
Yeah, tenure definitely a double-edged sword. On the one hand, being able to voice potentially unpopular opinions is important. On the other, having dead weight occupying faculty positions which brilliant younger folk would kill for — folks who would be more productive, more engaged, and contribute more to the world — is…well, maybe not great.
Feels like we could have both by ditching tenure and allowing professors to express their opinions (so long as it doesn’t interfere with teaching, of course).
Anecdotally, my business ethics professor in college was a very open libertarian. I’ll never agree with his politics, but despite that, he was an excellent teacher, and one of the better ones I had at the school overall. On the other hand, none of the classes I had that were run by tenured professors were any good, with one professor even giving us the wrong exam once and having us complete it anyway, even though it had material we weren’t even expected to know.