Why tenure is good

However, it also brings a moral obligation of collegial support, a high level of performance and productivity.

Debates about the merits of tenure are plentiful in the literature. However, tenure does not ensure a job for life. Tenure ensures that due process is followed in the event of termination. Termination of a tenured professor usually occurs with evidence of incompetence, unprofessionalism or extenuating circumstances such as significant financial exigency.

Arguments supporting tenure include the potential for increased ability to recruit and retain faculty members, academic freedom, job security and a higher level of productivity. The culture of academia supports the concept of tenure in higher education and optometric education.

Within an institution, administrators come and go, and every four years a new cadre of students enrolls, but the faulty represent the mainstay of the educational process.

The tenure system provides lifetime guarantees of employment for faculty members. The purpose is to protect academic freedom — a fundamental value in higher education that allows scholars to explore controversial topics in their research and teaching without fear of being fired.

Why Tenure? Tenure was originally created to give teachers academic freedom. It was made to eliminate the fear teachers may have of losing their jobs while they teach and perform duties.

Tenure is what makes it very difficult to fire teachers and professors after a certain number of years teaching. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Coursework Is tenure a good thing? Though it's been on the books for more than a century, New York state's tenure laws remain wildly misunderstood.

Tenure, simply put, is a safeguard that protects good teachers from unfair firing. Once a teacher is granted tenure — a right that must be earned after three years or more of service, oversight and evaluation — a teacher cannot be fired without a fair hearing. Tenure does not mean a job for life. It means simply that a teacher has the right to a fair hearing on charges that could end a career.

This is fundamental due process — an American value enshrined in our Bill of Rights and one that is not reserved only for the wealthy elite. Many dislike tenure for the same reason that others support it: once a teacher has tenure, it can be a very long and costly process to get that teacher removed from the classroom. In a report on teacher tenure by the nonprofit opinion research group Public Agenda, a New Jersey union representative said, "I've gone in and defended teachers who shouldn't even be pumping gas.

One of the major criticisms that the tenure system receives is that it is designed to protect teachers rather than students.

The tenure system can result in serious damage to the education of students who have to suffer through a year of instruction from a teacher who is incompetent, but who cannot be fired due to tenure.