tenure at KCTCS: why is that necessarily a good thing?

The story from Nancy Rodriguez in the C-J...

The state board overseeing Kentucky’s community colleges overreached when it decided to eliminate tenure for faculty hired after June 30, the state Attorney General Office’s has ruled.

Attorney General Jack Conway issued an advisory opinion Wednesday stating that while the Kentucky Community and Technical College System’s Board of Regents can set standards for how faculty earn tenure, “it is not free to eliminate tenure entirely.”

“New faculty at KCTCS must be able in some way to earn permanent security in their academic positions,” according to the opinion...

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm surprised that Conway would rule on this-- or that his opinion has any significant weight.

And is this related to his campaign for Senate?

At its March 13 meeting, the board of regents voted 10-4 to eliminate tenure for staff hired after June 30, a move college officials said would save money and increase flexibility in hiring.

The officials are half-wrong here. More flexibility to some extent, but less in others. As for money, you'll have to pay faculty more to come to KCTCS now-- to offset the elimination of an attractive job characteristic.

Existing profs keep their tenure. New profs would be paid more-- or quality would drop. Salary inversion is already quite common; this would have exacerbated it. That-- and the increased pressure on budgets-- would have made it wise for the college to keep tenure.

Tenure is more common at four-year colleges, where it is designed partly to foster academic freedom in research.

This is the most commonly-cited reason. But a larger issue is that faculty are generally required to hire their peers. And the incentive would be to hire lessers-- if they could compete for my job. On top of that, administrators are not in a good position to judge my hires or, even, my productivity-- since they don't have expertise in my field.

These concerns are not nearly as great in a community college context-- where faculty are judged mostly or exclusively on teaching.

In any case, it's sad to see the teachers and the admins engaged in a static analysis.


Then, the subsequent editorial from the C-J...

Higher education advocates should welcome the advisory opinion of Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway that the state's community colleges overstepped their legal authority when they decided last March to eliminate tenure for faculty hired after June 30.

Not really. Again, not all higher eds are equivalent.

The opinion is not binding, however, so the issue could have headed for court. Fortunately, that will not be necessary. The regents, while expressing disagreement with Mr. Conway, reversed their decision Friday and restored the tenure track. It is never easy to eat crow, but by putting this mistake behind them, the board acted in the best interests of KCTCS students and faculty.

Crow? is that what you call it when the govt holds a club over your head? Best interests-- now, and not previously? I think they've reached the right answer, but for different reasons.