Writing on the Foundation for Economic Education’s site, two professors I know, Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University and Aeon Skoble of Bridgewater State, give a spirited defense of tenure.
“A university cannot be a university without robust protection of the open exchange of ideas and the freedom of each scholar to research in his or her field without intimidation,” they write. That is true, although tenure doesn’t necessarily do an adequate job of protecting the open exchange of ideas and preventing intimidation. In the absence of tenure, Horwitz and Skoble say, “libertarians and conservatives would be the first to be persecuted, censored, or silenced.” Again, true — given the hypersensitivity to “microaggressions” including disagreement with the sentimental beliefs of students we now find on many campuses, conservatives and libertarians lacking the protection of tenure would have to shut up to keep their jobs.
Horwitz and Skoble are open to alternatives to tenure that would accomplish the goal of protecting academic freedom. That’s a subject worth exploration. It seems to me that the precise meaning of tenure is rather vague and it might be preferable to have a carefully worded contractual provision against dismissal for anything relating to speech or publication.