In its long and often tortured history, the faculty-job-protection status known as tenure has been defended as an essential safeguard for academic freedom. Professors, the argument goes, need to know that they won’t get fired for researching and teaching about controversial topics. In theory, tenure provides that necessary security. But critics of the system, who balk at the idea of a “job for life,” are unmoved by this defense. State lawmakers are busy chipping away at tenure’s protections or even seeking to do away with it altogether. But if the traditional argument for tenure’s existence is failing, what are its supporters to do? Is there a case for the system beyond academic freedom?

Related Reading

The War on Tenure (Deepa Das Acevedo / Cambridge University Press) 

Tenure Will Be Eliminated at Most of Oklahoma's Public Colleges, Governor Says⁠ (The Chronicle) 

The Strange, Secret History of Tenure (The Review) 

A Professor Was Fired for Her Politics. Is That the Future of Academia? (The New York Times Magazine)

Guest

Deepa Das Acevedo, associate professor of law at Emory University

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.