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Shall We End Tenure?

The President of the UW AAUP, Rob Wood,  addressed the non tenure issues at UWB and UWT as a labor issue.  (see below)

I suggest that he is missing the point.

There are two critical questions :

 

1. Are UWB and UWT vocational schools or research campuses? 

Despite the quality of faculty at these branches and the community pride the UW label brings to these communities,   the State regards them as vocational schools … more like community college finishing schools than places where academic inquiry is important.

Do vocational schools need tenured faculty?

2. Who decides if these campuses .. or programs at the Seattle campus .. are providing the intellectual environment expected of a “research” university?  

Is this the role of the administration of any public university?   Look at our own experience with Mark Emmert or to the recent appointments of a political buddy of Florida’s Governor as President of Florida State University.  Does anyone here have confidence that Phyllis Wise is committed to academic freedom?  Oh, and do not forget, that our employer, the legislature, awarded Western Governor’s University, a school that brags of having no faculty,  as a Washington State university.

 I suggest that the answers to both of these questions lie in the Faculty Senate.  Only an elite of Washington students can gain admission to the UW.  The Senate should support the need for UW class students to interact with faculty functioning at a high level, a function that requires tenure.

 

 


From: AAUP <[email protected]> on behalf of Robert Wood <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 3:21 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AAUP] Welcome to the new academic year from the AAUP

Dear Colleagues,One of the most worrying trends has been on our two branch campuses of UW Bothell and UW Tacoma, where there has been a dramatic rise in the hiring of non tenure track faculty. The attached slides are taken from the faculty demographics analysis by Jim Gregory for the Faculty Senate last year. Although the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty at UWB+UWT has risen since 2007, these increases have been exceededbyafactor of three by the increases in non tenure track faculty (PT and FT lecturers).RegardsRob



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