COLLOQUY

I have yet to see, here or elsewhere, an argument in favor of tenure which would not equally apply to virtually all other occupations. Like journalists, lawyers, farmers, and any other group with organized political clout, we are constantly telling everybody else that we're special. The world will shatter unless we are given privileges which no one else could ever hope for. Every special-interest group has arguments about why they should be exempt from the discipline of the marketplace, and the professoriate is just another special-interest group. Recall how the airlines and the telephone companies all screamed about the coming apocalypse when they were suddenly subjected to free competition? Oh yes, I know, they were just lazy, greedy capitalists, but we have truth, justice, and the American way as our only interests. The purity of our hearts and the superiority of our intellects demonstrate that we should be treated differently from everyone else. And since our hearts are purer and our minds clearer than others, no one should question us.

What all the arguments in favor of tenure come down to is this: Teachers should have the "right" to receive substantial amounts of money (an increasing percentage of which is taken forcibly from the taxpayers who earned it) in exchange for teaching what they want, in whatever way they want. It is not surprising that those who are paying that money are increasingly unwilling to grant us that right.

The claim that tenure amounts to nothing more than protection against wrongful termination without a hearing is a red herring. Labor law has evolved in such a way that it's already difficult for any employer to "wrongfully" terminate an employee. The real effects of tenure are twofold: It protects lazy and incompetent employees from the consequences of their own failure to perform, and it enables the academic clique to filter admission to its ranks by using its own political and philosophical litmus tests.

--Stan VerNooy, Instructor, Gateway Technical College, Batesville, Ark. (posted 3/6, 10:30 a.m., E.S.T.)