Amanda J. Sebesta, Ph.D.

Professors should not serve as punchbags for the university admins. A story from this article: - Tolu Odumosu submitted for tenure after 5 years at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville). His application was highly supported by the department, but the school rejected it. Why? Because “he hadn’t published any single-author books” (the requirement he never heard of) ▫️ Tenure requirements are becoming more life-draining than before. The main purposes behind tenure requirements are: - Universities want faculty members to secure funding, which generates overheads. But funding is hard to get! So, your profile MUST stand out. - Departments compete for ranking. They don’t want a faculty who is not great. ▫️ As a result: - Fewer people want to pursue a tenure-track academic career these days. - Young faculties experience enormous stress under tenure pressure. This hits their personal life really hard. - Students suffer from overwork and lack of mentoring because (in particular) their advisors are under pressure themselves. I do not defend such faculties, but this seems to be a big contributing factor. - Risky #research is postponed “until after tenure” (and often never pursued), resulting in fewer discoveries. ▫️ My personal opinion: 1. Yes, tenure by itself can give you freedom. However, I don’t see many associate professors suddenly leaving their comfort zone and going into risky research after getting tenured. This prompts the question - what does this freedom pertain to? (a provocative thought) 2. Tenure track is often turned into a rat race. This makes everyone miserable. Students, postdocs, faculties. The requirements MUST be lessened. It’s basically exploitation. Personally, I am not on a tenure track. And I don’t care if I am given tenure or not. ▫️ With this in mind, let me recite another story form this article: Columbia University had been trying to GIVE tenure to David Helfand for nearly FOUR decades. Each time, the astronomer said “no thanks”. Why? “Tenure does more to suppress academic freedom of those who don’t have it”. - he said. (He was on five-year contracts. However, in July 2022, the provost refused to give him a new contract, so he got de facto tenure.) ▫️ The point is: ❗Departments should lessen TT requirements. Excessive competition, ranking and quantities is not why we go into science. We're not here to do business. ❗Tenure has been essential to academia. But fierce competition is not. #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter