tenure
TagTenure Threatened in Iowa and Missouri
State legislators in Iowa and Missouri have introduced legislation to eliminate tenure for public colleges and universities in their states. While the Missouri bill would have schools cease tenure-track hiring in 2018, the Iowa bill goes further, proposing to take tenure away from those who already have it, according to reports from Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicl..
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Writing a Tenure Letter But Were Afraid to Ask (guest post by David Boonin)
The following is a guest post* by David Boonin. He is currently professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he has also been department chair and associate dean. He noticed that there did not appear to be much in the way of guidance when it came to writing external review letters for people under consideration for tenure, and sought to reme..
Chicago State’s Sudden Layoffs Include A Tenured Philosopher
Chicago State University has been facing a financial crisis. It relies on the state of Illinois for about 30% of its budget, but, owing to the previous financial and budgeting decisions the university’s administrators had made, along with the state’s “budget stalemate that left higher education without a dime for most of last year—and then provided only partial fu..
When To Say Yes & When To Say No in Academia
An assistant professor of philosophy writes in with an important question that I imagine a lot of academics spend time pondering: (more…)
Letter Protesting Dickinson’s Treatment of Sartwell
Joel Pust (Delaware) and Eric Winsberg (South Florida) have authored an open letter in regards to philosopher Crispin Sartwell’s employment status at Dickinson College: “Academics’ Statement of Protest Regarding Dickinson College’s Treatment of Professor Crispin Sartwell.” They invite philosophers and other academics to sign. (For some context, see this post.)
Fr..
Fund Legal Help for Fired Professors
A GoFundMe site has been created to collect donations for Thane Naberhaus and Edward Egan, the two professors recently fired from Mount Saint Mary’s University by the university’s president, Simon Newman. The story has been summed up well by a fellow philosopher’s comment about Newman: “He wanted to use a fraudulent mental health survey to target students for elimin..
A Modest Proposal: Slow Philosophy (guest post by Jennifer Whiting)
The following is a guest post* by Jennifer Whiting (Pittsburgh).
A Modest Proposal: Slow Philosophy
by Jennifer Whiting
In his review of Moral Prejudices by Annette Baier, Colin McGinn claimed that Baier had proposed that universities accommodate the demands of women’s reproductive clocks by allowing women to postpone tenure decisions until the age of 50 ..
Would the Great Philosophers Have Survived in the Modern University?
Would the philosophers who populate the canon have gotten tenure? Would they have survived the Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessments in the UK? Lloyd Strickland (Manchester Metropolitan University) is skeptical:
Immanuel Kant might look worthy of the nod – his three Critiques shaped a lot of the philosophy that came afterwards. However, those works were..
Do the Tenured Speak Up Enough?
Tenure is, in part, designed to protect one from retaliation. It’s the tenured that can make the culture of silence (and shame) within a profession disappear…. Obviously they need help from their employers (universities and grant agencies), but it does make a difference.
What is so distressing about professional philosophy, is that too much of the hard work i..
APA Responds to Threats to Tenure in Wisconsin
The American Philosophical Association (APA) has released a statement in response to the recently approved Wisconsin state budget legislation, which removed tenure protections from state law and weakened employment protections for tenured faculty. The statement includes the following:
Tenure is the most important safeguard of academic freedom, and academic freedo..
Goswami Lawsuit Against DePaul to Proceed
Namita Goswami was denied tenure in the Department of Philosophy at DePaul University in the 2009-2010 academic year. She claimed that discrimination played a role in the decision and sued. Her story was covered a few years back in Inside Higher Ed:
“I was teaching exactly what I was hired to do and it was used against me,” said Goswami, a native of India who all..
Iowa Bill Proposes Faculty Play “Survivor” (updated)
A bill (Senate File 64) under consideration in the Iowa legislature, proposed by State Senator Mark Chelgren, would turn faculty positions into something like Survivor. Or maybe the Hunger Games. The bill would:
- Require that any professor employed by an institution of higher learning under the control of the board teach at least one course offered for academic c..