Posted on 06/30/2015 6:26:48 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
Tenured faculty may make up an increasingly smaller proportion of the professoriate than in days gone by but they are hanging onto their jobs with both fists.
“Tenured faculty age 50 or older can be divided into three groups—35 % expect to retire by normal retirement age; 16 % would prefer to retire by normal retirement age, but expect to work longer (i. e., they are ‘reluctantly reluctant’ to retire); and 49 % would like to and expect to work past normal retirement age (i.e., they are ‘reluctant by choice’),” economist Paul Yakoboski found. Yakoboski is a senior economist at the TIAA-CREF Institute, a financial services firm.
In fact, Yakoboski writes, “Seventy-nine percent of those reluctant by choice report being very satisfied with their academic career.” Moreover, “anywhere from 60 % to 90 % have not seriously considered what they would do with their time in retirement,” Yakoboski found. In his survey, Yakoboski found that most tenured faculty, no matter how reluctant they might be:
• “Enjoy teaching and interacting with students;”
• “Value the intellectual stimulation provided by research;” and
• “Value the intellectual stimulation provided by interactions with colleagues.”
Arguably, no matter what their political views might be, these professors know a good deal when they get it and are “reluctant” to let go of it.
And they stay until they drop.
Why should they retire?
Their “jobs” are what many of us would do in our retirement, given the chance. Could argue they’re already retired in all but name.
“Arguably, no matter what their political views might be, these professors know a good deal when they get it and are “reluctant” to let go of it.”
Nonsense. One accusation of racism or homophobia and they are fired. Tenure won’t help them
I think they’re that way at all schools. Over-paid, under- worked, self-important parasites of the budget. Some of them were too stupid to hold a real job. I had three that were the laughing stock of the student population.
I fall into the category of ‘won’t leave’ – that said, I could retire but I love teaching; have been doing it for many years. I have found that not only do students know nothing about American history and Civics (a course I once taught in high school) but the ‘new-bee’ profs know nothing as well.
Soon you’ll have universities and colleges populated by know-nothings who will fall for anything the media pushes at them. When my era generation retires, the party is over for freedom of thought and expression, etc. Sometimes it’s all I can do to stay on the job but the good still outweighs the bad so I’ll continue to tough it out.
And, by the way, teaching is not easy (when it’s conducted in the proper manner)….and I don’t play golf or date the cheerleaders!
Here's a story from 2012. Perhaps it concerns one of your laughing stocks:
Michigan Professor Strips Naked In Class, Shouts 'There Is No (Expletive Deleted) God'
• “Enjoy teaching and interacting with students;” No, not really.
• “Value the intellectual stimulation provided by research;” Yes, but this can continue after retirement.
• “Value the intellectual stimulation provided by interactions with colleagues.” No, as a conservative I am scorned by my colleagues.
The given answers sound like good reasons to continue to work even though you could retire. But, is this the reality? It shouldn’t be for the superannuated tenured professor to determine each for himself.
It’s kind of like driver’s licenses. After a certain age, people should have to have periodic eye exams and perhaps also driving exams to make sure they actually can drive a car safely.
My school doesn’t have a tenure system. The regular full-time faculty are on long-term renewable contracts. Almost everybody stays in the first year of their multi-year contract by reason of annual performance review. This sounds pretty good on paper, but in reality there is a tendency toward grade inflation and puff courses. This is because faculty are always under the gun of student evaluations.
I think ending tenure requires a new approach to testing. Students should have to take standardized exams not graded by their particular instructor. In such manner their instructor becomes their resources for learning. Plus, administrators could use pass rates in addition to student evaluations in their annual performance reviews.
I would go with a more objective criterion: how many graduate and get a job in their field.
It would not be complicated to send the IRS a list of social security numbers of people who graduated five years prior, along with their classes and professors, have that matched up with gross income now, and after matchup strip the identifying social security numbers so as to anonymize the data.
You would now have the data needed to correlate professors and courses with after-graduation economic viability. Fire the professors whose students can't seem to get a job that's worth what they paid in tuition.
Another suggestion: mandate the professors pension funds invest in student loans. If the student loans get paid back, great. If the loans don't get paid back, the professors' pension funds take a hit.
Many of the rest are "sipping the nectar" on the taxpeasant dime.
So what?
I am an academic. Used to think I’d retire at 62, but now I’m thinking it might be between 65-72. Not because I have to work, but because I enjoy working. Also, I’ve noticed that some people (not all) suffer significant mental decline after they retire—including those who retire relatively early.
The critical thing is: Do the students find your course engaging & valuable? I teach computer science, so its also important to keep up with new developments. When you can do longer do that, it’s definitely time to go.
but obviously you can.
Tenured professors? Heck-That’s like having a license to print your OWN money!!
Do you mean "Die Hard MMXV (2015): tenure" rather than "MCXV", (1115).
(we old codgers remember the numbering system of our youth!)
I think so. I’m in my mid-fifties now, but my biggest fear will be that I’ll retire and just start to degrade both mentally and physically. Like I said, I’ve seen this happen to several colleagues and friends; in some cases, it was quite unexpected & shocking.
Various measures of post-graduate success are available and are used in evaluating schools and majors. These are incorporated into U.S. News rankings of schools and Payscales.com offers first year and fifth year earnings of graduates by school and by major. This is good information for students.
However, college administrators are happy to take tuition dollars from all students regardless of whether the students care about whether their college degree will actually be worth something. The overwhelming majority of students nowadays are more interested in winning sports teams and student unions than in challenging programs involving math and science, no matter what the post-graduate outcome.
The data required to evaluate individual faculty based on post-graduate success of their students would be enormous. Assuming a student takes forty different 3-credit courses, this means 2.5 percent of a student’s post-graduate success might be attributed to any one of his professors. Furthermore, are we talking about the first-year salary or the fifth-year salary? First-year (starting) salaries are all about the reputation of the school, not about any particular student’s ability. To wait for fifth-year salaries means a very long delay between a particular professor’s work and the evaluation of it.
The point of this thread is tenure. More specifically, how tenured professors might go on “teaching” even though they could retire, when they might not be productive in the classroom. Tenure has its problems. But, ending tenure introduces other problems. Specifically, if colleges base keeping a job solely on student evaluations, the consequence will be a watering down of academic rigor and grade inflation. Post-graduate performance is impractical. I suggest student performance on a standardized exam.
I would like to conclude by thanking you for your confidence in professors. You think professors can overcome public policy, college administrators and unengaged students and turn around the deterioration of standards in our universities, if only professors were sufficiently motivated such as by having their pensions invested in student loans. While I think you’re mistaken about our ability, I accept the compliment.
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