It holds down salaries. Reform of tenure is happening everywhere. Hampshire College has a variant. All instructors have 'lecturer' positions with ten year contracts. The problem with tenure is that departments may not function as well.
Younger professors are more subject to elders.
If they don't like the committment, it's hard to get tenure. Tenure stops an administration from exploiting people. I'd be in favor of some sort of revamping of it. We should have tenure evaluations so people won't fall into a groove of not caring or being disgruntled. Last modified on April 29, 2001.