April 20, 2007

An Uncertain Future for Tenure as We Know It

To the Editor:

"Does Tenure Really Work?" (The Chronicle Review, March 9) asks the wrong question. Of course tenure works: Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci themselves concede that it helps attract talented faculty members, raise graduation rates, and protect the speech and writings of contrarians.

The actual question suggested by the authors' study, for which their data do not supply answers, is "Why are some tenured faculty members intellectually timid?" I suspect the

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