The Tenure Conundrum
The institution of academic tenure was started by progressive reformers in the late 19th century to protect academic freedom.
The idea was to assure that faculty members could not be fired because of their views.
Why exactly should academics, public or private, enjoy protections or liberties not available to us all, anyway?
My own view is that we all should be free not only to have but express our views without risk of being fired, so long as neither having nor expressing those views conflicts with requirements of or qualifications for our work.
And this freedom should be protected by law.
Liberals everywhere oppose any such universal guarantee, as it would take away their most potent weapon from the PC thought and speech police.
And are they, in the age of PC, the best folks to trust to uphold this protection even for academics?
I think not.
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