Tenure also can be removed if an academic department needs to be closed or an institution is in serious financial trouble. Nationally, about 2 percent of tenured faculty are dismissed in a given year. Few professors would discuss controversial ideas or conduct research that might conflict with the interests of powerful corporations or the government if they were not protected by tenure from reprisals.
Tenure carries with it a number of responsibilities.
Surveys clearly show that tenured faculty publish more, serve on more campus committees and teach more than untenured colleagues. According to the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, on average, tenured faculty work 52 hours per week. Most professors do not have tenure. Only about a third of the nation's higher education faculty hold tenure track positions. Nearly half of the professorate are part-timers.