“… tenure remains essential to the core mission of higher education: the creation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge, without fear or favor,” write President David Wippman and his co-author Cornell Professor Glenn Altschuler in their most recent essay in Inside Higher Ed. Titled “3 Reasons Why Tenure Remains Indispensable” in the publication’s Dec. 13 issue, the essay outlines recent threats to tenure as an institution along with declining general public respect for higher education.
Along with the reasons stated by the American Association of University Professors for tenure, the two authors add a few additional ones. They also outline how the practice benefits an institution. They conclude their essay with this warning, “And critics have not offered viable alternatives to an approach that has stood the test of time, one we undermine at our peril.”
