Easing tenure’s grip

The University of Wisconsin system recently took a landmark step toward weakening the institution of tenure for academic faculty. The new policy, if adopted by the board overseeing the state’s universities, would allow tenured professors to be laid off for economic reasons, or if the university decides to restructure its programs. It also would permit professors to be fired based on negative post-tenure reviews, which are conducted every five years.

There are definitely reasons to be skeptical of such a radical change in the structure of our universities. Abolishing tenure could deter professors from engaging in risky, long-term research projects. Tenure is supposed to act as an insurance policy that allows researchers to take risks.

That’s the theory, anyway. In reality, though, the tenure system may actually be discouraging bold, innovative research.

Tenure is a perk – an in-kind benefit that substitutes for salary. Giving professors tenure allows universities to pay them less. When you pay people with job security rather than money, you skew the type of job applicant that you get. People who value money more will tend to avoid the job, while people who prize security will be the ones who apply.

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In other words, tenure makes academia more likely to attract risk-averse individuals.

Tenure probably has another, more subtle negative effect on academia – it creates a wall between the ivory tower and the private sector. Tenure creates a need for the tenure track. Since most starting professors enter through the tenure track, it is very difficult for someone from industry to enter academia midcareer. He or she can teach as a low-paid adjunct, or occasionally snag a position as a research professor, but the former pays next to nothing and the latter are both rare and also relatively low-paying.

Of course, as with any big policy change, we must be cautious. There are obvious ways the new policy could be abused. Professors might be fired for unpopular political opinions or for going against academic fads and fashions.

But if it’s done right, the weakening of tenure also has the potential to bring academia into the modern economic world. Academia has existed as a strange, isolated exception, a place lost in time, where job security still substitutes for money, challenges and mobility. Perhaps it’s time to reunite that world with the rest of civilization. n

Noah Smith is an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University and a Bloomberg View columnist.

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