Tenure has been the key mechanism for protecting academic freedom. Once a faculty member receives tenure, he or she cannot be subjected to adverse employment actions without proof of cause. First Amendment Protection Chemerinsky references the Supreme Court's stand that the government may not punish the speech of public employees if it concerns matters of public concern unless the state can prove that the needs of the government outweigh the speech rights of employees. Tenure is central for sustaining critical inquiry Edwards' essay, makes the case that tenure is needed to nurture an individual faculty member's the habit of critical inquiry regardless of the inconvenience of consequences and to sustain on campuses a culture that values and upholds such inquiry. During fiscal crises, tenure makes it difficult to shift resources.
Some faculty stop meeting job expectations after they receive tenure.
Rather than protecting faculty who want to take risks, it actually makes faculty risk-averse so that they can get tenure. Academic freedom is actually protected as free speech under the law . Institutions and faculty would negotiate a renewable five-year contract that specifically outlines expectations that the institutions has for faculty and how they will be evaluated. In some public higher education systems, the proposal would be to grant tenure at the system level. Once a person is granted tenure than the faculty member is reviewed over given a years to determine if he or she is maintaining tenure standards.