AFT believes that tenure is the bulwark of accountability and quality in higher education. It ensures that the institution’s curriculum, teaching, research and other academic programs will be framed by trained and motivated professionals who possess a deep, lasting commitment to the institution. That is exactly what we want in employees. Designing ways to weaken tenure or to deny people its protections makes no sense.

Still many believe that tenure is nothing less than a lifetime job guarantee. It means professors don’t need to work hard or care about students and that professors defend tenure by saying fancy things about academic freedom, but they just want to hold on to their cushy jobs. Such beliefs are nothing more than myths based on a clear misunderstanding of the rigor and value of the tenure process—a process that our system of higher education is based on and a process that should be maintained.

How Tenure Really Works

Under the tenure system, newly hired full-time faculty undergo a multiyear probationary period during which their work is continually evaluated. During this time, they are subject to non-renewal of their employment contract without recourse. At the end of the probationary period, they are evaluated yet again. At that time, if faculty peers and the college management agree, the faculty member is awarded tenure, which means that his or her position is now based on a presumption of continuing employment.

Tenure is not a lifetime job guarantee; it is a right to due process. It means that a college or university cannot fire a tenured professor without presenting evidence that the professor is incompetent or the institution is in grave financial difficulty. Aside from facing the possibility of dismissal, the teaching, research and service performance of tenured professors continues to be evaluated throughout their careers for, among other things, promotion, salary increases, grants, professional development funds and sabbaticals.

It is not easy to remove a tenured professor by fiat; management bears the burden of proof in a quasi-judicial process surrounded by due-process protections. That is done purposely, to protect free expression in the academic community, based on society’s recognition that colleges have to be places where students and scholars can explore and debate issues.

Inevitably, this will sometimes mean that professors challenge established interests as well as the conventional wisdom of any field. Tenure gives faculty the independence to speak out about contentious matters and, yes, to challenge the administration on issues of new curriculum and quality, without putting their jobs on the line. Surveys show that tenured faculty generally publish more, serve on more academic committees—and also teach more, and more effectively—than their untenured colleagues. As an employment practice, tenure helps bring the country’s best minds into higher education—a field that is not highly lucrative. Tenure serves to provide continuity and stability to the educational program.

Consequently, AFT is fighting at every level to ensure that tenure policies are maintained and that institutions and states are working to rebuild a corps of full-time faculty that have the opportunity to move their way up the tenure ranks.