Yet even within the arts and sciences, some faculty members elect to work on campuses with contract systems. So much for faculty members' personal perspectives. Since about one-half of all American faculty members work without tenure, the supposedly unbreakable bond between academic freedom and tenure is already suspect. If significant numbers of colleagues followed suit, the public might finally understand the value the profession truly attaches to academic freedom as a fundamental principle, rather than a convenient rationale for near-absolute employment security. Finally, although academics routinely insist upon empirical evidence and factual data, the debate on tenure often proceeds without either.
Few institutions collect or disseminate data on tenure probability rates for probationary faculty.
Comparative data on personnel policies and tenure decisions are scarcer still. In sum, deliberations about tenure should exemplify the best of the academy, not the worst. As we regularly remind the world, the academic profession thrives on systematic inquiry, careful experiments, and robust debate. Lest we properly be labeled hypocrites on other fronts, we must create conditions conducive to civilized discourse and incisive analysis of the value of academic tenure and alternative employment practices. If we fail, the academy's aversion to a robust, open-minded exploration of employment arrangements would signal to society at large that the bastion of academic freedom rests on a very insecure foundation.