In these instances, the presence of tenure serves as a protection for the faculty and as a civilizing influence on the institution, ensuring that early retirement is truly voluntary. Not so the proposal at hand. Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society. In the proposal at hand, the claim of a mutually optimal exchange assumes not only that both parties are better off, but also that no one is made worse off by the bargain. But there is no doubt that the faculty as a whole and the long-term interests of the academic enterprise are the worse for it.
Tenure is accorded for the common good of the academy and society.
The rigor of the decision-making process conduces toward maintaining a faculty of high quality. Too much evidence has been accumulated since the Association proclaimed the need for tenure in 1915 to deny that the presence of tenured faculty members is vital to maintain freedom in the academy. Back to Text 2. Suffice it to say that there is no evidence of systematic or even widespread abuse of or arbitrariness in the tenure process. On the contrary, the overwhelming number of personnel actions affecting tenure occasion no controversy and reflect the academic expectations of the profession.