Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Getting Faculty to Retire

(Very) Senior faculty: How will we miss you if you won't go away?

It seems to me that tenure contracts should end at age 70. After age 70, you would revert to renewable five year fixed term contracts.

Because I hear that it is really hard to get some faculty to retire. (This is not a problem at Duke of course. All our faculty are highly valued, and welcome to stay as long as they want...)

An article from the VC
.

(Nod to Angry Alex)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tenure is nothing more than an entitlement. Any educator worth his salt should advocate that it be abolished entirely.

Anonymous said...

Anon: Thanks for playing!

But you are an idiot.

Is the high salary of A. Pujols an "entitlement"? I don't see why extra pay given to those judged best is an "entitlement."

Tenure is a feature of an employment contract. It has a value that would make people with tenure indifferent between being given it and giving it up.

And, as any economist worth his salt would tell you, that means that a tenured prof's pay is MUCH lower than it would be without tenure.

Angus and I, being living gods of academia, actually don't NEED tenure, because it doesn't protect us. All tenure does is lower our salaries.

So, I agree that tenure is a rip-off. It is a cross subsidy from those who would be paid more to those who barely get it and then do nothing.

But "entitlement"? When most academics never get it, and it awarded for unusual merit? You are not the brightest light stick in the emergency bag, are you, Anon?

Gerardo said...

Actually, Anon points out that "any educator worth his salt should advocate that it be abolished entirely."

Precisely.

And educators "not worth their salt" -- especially ones likely to get over that tenure bar and into a life of relative obscurity and leisure -- should defend it.

Perhaps not.

Anonymous said...

So you're the A. Pujols of academia? With all your vitriol and braggadocio, It seems that Randy Moss would be a more apt comparison. Clearly the inmates are running the asylum.

Bill said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Tenure is a way to hide from your responsibilities without fear of being held accountable for your actions, or lack of them.

Anonymous said...

Real men don't hide behind the skirt of tenure.

Anonymous said...

cash is nice.