How can we create an educational institution that is an adaptive system?
Last Tuesday, Mark Taylor, Chair of Columbia University’s Religion Department, attempted to answer this in his presentation, “Crisis on Campus: Refiguring Teaching and Learning.” He criticized the current model, advocating for greater systemic flexibility, and proposed steps to reform: restructure the financial model; reorganize curriculum; revise certification principles; reassess teaching/research balance; enable students to cultivate new and different kinds of literacies; and, most controversially, reconstitute the workforce and abolish tenure. “Tenure is eroding,” Taylor said. This may be true. But is it necessary?
On Tuesday, The Atlantic fatefully published “The Future of Education: A Poll”. Thirty presidents from U.S. colleges and universities responded to questions about incoming student preparedness, competition with foreign schools, and the effects of abolishing tenure.
The Atlantic’s poll suggests these presidents’ and Taylor’s perspectives diverge. Fifty-seven percent of presidents said “little would actually change” if tenure was universally abolished. However, respondents predicted negative consequences in eradicating tenure at individual schools. Is there a pragmatic way to end tenure?
As part of Taylor’s plan, institutions would enact 7-year renewable contracts for faculty. To one poll respondent, this is not a viable answer. “[T]enure would be replace[d] by limited-term contracts and a complex, burdensome, continuous review of all faculty members at all levels of appointment. The workload required to do it sufficiently well to stand up to the scrutiny of ‘equitable’ review is remarkably large,” the president said. He or she added that the lack of a mandatory retirement age is a more pressing concern.
Would the end of tenure help create an adaptive higher education system better attuned to the needs of 21st Century students? To learn more about Taylor’s provocative ideas for reforming higher education, log onto www.twitter.com/scholarlycomm for event tweets. Stay tuned for the video!