Tenure is a vital aspect of academic life for professors, particularly in the United States. It provides job security and guarantees academic freedom, allowing professors to conduct their research freely without fear of persecution. On the other hand, tenure is not a given; it is never guaranteed for any professor. After years of dedicated service, some professors may be denied tenure for various reasons. Before discussing what happens when a professor is denied tenure, it is vital to understand the tenure system.
The Tenure System
The tenure system is a framework that provides job security and academic freedom to professors. It enables educational institutions to maintain a diverse and respectable faculty by ensuring that the most proficient lecturers stay employed for a more extended period. Typically, after serving for several years as assistant professors, faculty members apply for tenure. The university then examines their work and grants the decision based on merit, teaching ability, and research output. It is a very rigorous process, and those who do not make the grade can lose their positions.
What happens when a professor is denied tenure?
Professional Repercussions
When a professor is denied tenure, it can have far-reaching repercussions that go way beyond losing their job. Firstly, being refused tenure can be psychologically devastating for the professor. It can affect their self-esteem, leading to feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, and depression. It could also be embarrassing to them among their colleagues, who have already received tenure. Since professors spend years building their careers with the assumption of receiving tenure, the shock of being denied can be profound.
Furthermore, being denied tenure can significantly impact the professor’s career. For starters, they are likely to lose their job at the institution where they applied for tenure. Denial of tenure frequently causes a professor to search for a new job, with the uncertainty that comes with being unemployed. Although they may find a new job in another university, it may take time, and some may even have to downscale, accepting less paid positions. It could mean having to move to a new city, state or even country, depending on the professor’s career choices.
Faculty Interaction Turnovers
Another significant repercussion of a tenure denial is the loss of valuable resources in the university. Since faculty members of tenure are often distinguished and influential in their fields, losing them could cause a loss of valuable mentorship and instruction. Students will not have the opportunity to interact with these resources, take their courses or benefit from their research. Losing them could also cause a significant brain drain to the university in terms of research output, new publications, and similar academic pursuits. Scholarship within the department could then decline due to limited faculties to work with.
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion, when a professor is denied tenure, the consequences can be severe, ranging from job loss to professional and psychological impact. Inevitably, this can be a very traumatic and life-altering event for those professors affected. What is needful though, is for institutional leaders to ensure that standards for granting the tenure are clear and explicit, and to provide clear criteria for assessing the academic and scholarly record of the applicants. This will make the process less arbitrary, and more equitable in the long run. 3
