Having given away tenure, we might legitimately demand to be paid like other professionals. Renewals of contracts would become occasions for serious negotiations. A scholar reaching the end of a contractual term might naturally take that opportunity to see what was available elsewhere. Collective bargaining might turn out to be an appropriate model in some institutions. If we abandon the tenure that has led the courts to consider us management, we may find ourselves able to organize.
Administrative flexibility is a third advantage.
Departments could grow more easily in response to enrollment pressures and move more quickly to enter emerging fields of study if their faculty members were hired on six-year contracts. Under the current system, deans and presidents are all too aware of the unpredictable lifetime costs of hiring a tenure-track assistant professor. Under a contract system, everyone would occupy the middle ground. Beyond these pragmatic advantages, a contract system would reduce hypocrisy. A department's decision not to renew a colleague might honestly be presented as a decision driven by factors other than the scholarly quality of the candidate's work, factors such as enrollments or budgetary pressures.