Academic Trivia #2: What is "tenure"?

My first “Academic Trivia” post left you with a cliffhanger: what is “tenure”?  As someone who grew up with two university professors for parents, I remember hearing the term a lot.  However, I misunderstood the term for many years and thought it was “ten year.”  I couldn’t understand why professors went up for “ten year” after six years (I mean, that doesn’t make sense, does it?).  Okay, here is my answer (to the question of tenure, not “ten year”). 

Tenure is a system of promotion used within universities that grants permanent employment to a faculty member after a probationary period.  Tenure is granted to faculty members after they demonstrate a successful record of teaching, research, and service at a university.  Here at USF, faculty members go “up for tenure” in their sixth year of employment.  Going up for tenure involves a faculty member putting together a comprehensive history of their work at a university, including teaching evaluations, course materials, letters of recommendation, publications, and evidence of service to the university and profession.  These materials are reviewed by two separate committees made up of faculty members, representing departments from across the university, who already have tenure.  Additionally, research materials are reviewed by expert scholars from different universities.  Each committee then makes a recommendation to the Dean, who makes a recommendation to the Provost, who makes a recommendation to the University President. 

As someone who just went up for tenure last year (along with my colleague, Professor Ho), I realized that one of the elements of tenure that students may not understand is that tenure is an all or nothing process.  That is, you either get tenure or you must leave the university.  So, it is a big deal!  The tenure process was developed as a way to protect the academic freedom of professors, so that they could research, teach, and talk about unpopular beliefs and positions, if they so choose.  Incidently, tenure is given with the understanding that the professor will continue his or her strong record of teaching, research, and service.  Professors who have been granted tenure also usually receive a promotion to Associate Professor.  Professors who have tenure can be let go, but usually only “for cause,” which generally means that the faculty member has been involved in severe misconduct.  Next up: a special graduation week edition of Academic Trivia!  (You’re excited, aren’t you?)…