Acquisition and Loss of Tenure, November 9, 1997

THE ACQUISITION AND LOSS OF TENURE

What is the meaning and purpose of tenure?

Former Harvard University Dean Henry Rosovsky describes tenure as a social contract in which professors achieve job security by accepting lower pay than their education, talents, and initiative would command in other fields. Faculty members have the talent and amount of time invested in their own education that would tend to make them very successful business people, lawyers, and doctors - people who make much more money than the average faculty member. Our faculty have chosen not to take that course, but instead have accepted the safety of tenure in order to seek and publish answers to difficult and unpopular questions.

How does a person achieve tenure?

A doctoral degree, which typically requires from nine to twelve years of university study, is required for most university teaching positions. Chosen from perhaps hundreds of applicants in a highly competitive process, a new faculty member enters the tenure track, a seven-year developmental period during which progress is monitored annually by peers and administrators.

In the first six years the new faculty member must receive favorable student and peer evaluations of teaching, and must publish research in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, or produce equivalent peer-reviewed creative work.

In the sixth year, overall performance is reviewed by faculty peers, external reviewers from other universities or industry, department heads, deans, and ultimately the Provost and President, who may recommend to the Board of Regents that tenure be granted. The Board usually grants tenure upon this recommendation effective in the seventh year. Thus, when tenure is granted, the faculty member has devoted sixteen or more years of effort to achieve that status. Slightly more than one-half of those hired into the tenure track at Texas A&M actually receive tenure.

The rigor of this process of evaluation ensures that tenured faculty are prepared to remain a highly productive group for the balance of their careers. Because of this rigorous process, we can be sure that the tenured faculty are people of proven ability to solve problems.

How is research measured?

Quality and amount of research are measured by publications, dollar value of grants, patents won, showings in galleries, performances, architectural awards, number of references to one's work, invitations to speak at conferences and colloquiums, honors and awards, and invited memberships in prestigious societies. At the times of tenure and promotion consideration, and occasionally at other times, experts in the same field are asked to write letters assessing the research of a faculty member.

Many A&M faculty have published books that are used and cited around the world. Others have achieved technological breakthroughs that have increased productivity and competitiveness in engineering, agriculture, and numerous other fields. Research and publication are the key determinants of a university's national and world reputation, for they demonstrate faculty quality to an audience beyond the campus of Texas A&M and the state of Texas.

What happens to the people who don't get tenure?

Some go into industry, some go to other, usually less stringent, schools and start the tenuring process again, and some change their fields of study. The bar for tenure is set very high, so to be denied tenure is not a cause for shame.

Is it true that a tenured faculty member cannot be fired?

No. There is a continuing review process including annual reviews. When a pattern of insufficient productivity is seen, a post-tenure review process is initiated, in which the faculty member, in concert with his or her department head and dean, works out a three-year program of improvement with specified goals. If this program fails, the faculty member may be fired.
Moreover, the security of tenure may be forfeited if a faculty member is found through due process to have become incompetent, or to be guilty of moral turpitude. A faculty member who relaxes and quits doing the hard work that earned tenure will quickly become so far behind current work in his or her field that he or she will become effectively incompetent. But long before such incompetence manifests itself, this sort of faculty member is pressured to improve or find other employment.

What sort of pressure is used?

When the problem first manifests itself, a department head may simply talk to the faculty member about the problem. Later pressure can include assignments to teach less desirable courses, and small or no pay raises (a powerful incentive in a time of inflation). Inevitably, the colleagues of an underperforming faculty member know about it; the resulting peer pressure is intense. In the face of these pressures, most faculty will either improve or move on to another, less demanding, job. But if the faculty member does not improve and does not move on, then post-tenure review provides a mechanism to obtain the desired action. During the five years from Fall 1991 to Fall 1996 (excluding Medicine and Galveston), about 5% of our tenured faculty moved to other institutions. Many were people who were wooed away from us and whom we did not want to lose, but some were those whose willingness to work to justify their tenure has evaporated. We replaced all of these former faculty members with strong people, thus increasing competition within their departments.

Why not just fire the person right away? "Pressure" could take years.

We have a huge investment in each tenured professor. Moreover, in many fields these people are irreplaceable - one may be the only person working on a problem of importance to us, or one of so few that attracting another here is unlikely. So if an unproductive faculty member can be rehabilitated, even if it takes several years, the University and the public it serves come out ahead. Firing faculty is, as it should be, reserved for the hopeless cases and for those whose behavior is completely unacceptable. Firing is done carefully and with many safeguards, for firing a faculy member damages programs in ways that cannot be repaired. But it does occur.