HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Frustrated Faculty Struggle To Defend Tenure Before It’s Too Late.
[T]he argument that tenure is the essential protection faculty members need to do their jobs is one that an increasing number of professors have felt compelled to make — and almost always to less-than-receptive audiences. In an era where skepticism about higher education runs high and anti-intellectualism thrives in the political discourse, the concept of tenure fuels perceptions that professors are a protected class isolated from the rigors of the real world.
The argument that tenure is essential to protecting independent thought would be more compelling if universities and their faculties showed more interest in independent thought. And that’s not because of “anti-intellectualism” on the part of the public.
