The rationale for tenure in colleges and universities is that it allows faculty to speak out on controversial issues without the fear of retaliation. But despite its existence, there is no real academic freedom (“Academic Freedom Is Withering,” The Wall Street Journal, Mar. 1)
That should be apparent when the National Association of Scholars reported 65 instances of professors being disciplined or fired for what they assumed was protected speech – a five-fold increase from the year before. Not surprisingly, those cases involved conservative faculty. That’s why 7 in 10 conservative academics engage in self-censorship.
Since that is the case, then why have tenure in the first place? I doubt eliminating it would make matters even worse. In fact, it would likely allow deadwood liberal professors to be fired for engaging in indoctrination, rather than in education.
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