To the extent that tenure supports academic freedom, I support tenure. I want no person or system to have any power, real or apparent, to chill academic freedom.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Historically, professors have defended tenure as a way to protect their individualistic thought. But tenure can also be used as a club to wield against the powerless.
Great research universities must insist on independence from government and on the exercise of academic freedom.
By giving professors jobs for life, universities create a feeling of unanswerable power among too many. Tenured professors who are uninterested in serving the student body are less likely to respond favorably to criticism, and are more likely to feel the freedom to intimidate or harass those with opposing viewpoints.
I've learned over the years that freedom is just the other side of discipline.
I want to have the freedom to do whatever I want.
In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.
You don't have true freedom until you allow a diversity of opinion and a diversity of voices.
Securing freedom has been a singular commitment of American presidents and patriots in and out of government for generations. But its perpetual continuation is not guaranteed.
I'm a tenured professor. But I'd get rid of tenure.
Universities think people come up with great ideas by closing the door. The academic tenure process, where you have to publish to journals which are very narrow, stands in the way of great research.