This is an excellent question (though, perhaps, not in the right forum). While I agree that the vast majority of tenured academics are not notable (at most schools, tenure is not really that hard), there is the question of top notch professors who are respected by their communities but don't make it into the popular press. Should we have a different notability criterion for them? My feeling is that there is no hurry. If a professor is significant in his or her community, they'll sooner or later get a chair at their, presumably well known, university and that, for us, is a sufficient condition for inclusion. As with everything else, we need some reliable indicator of notability and these indicators exist in academia so we shouldn't get into the business of trying to determine notability ourselves.   (comment)