Re: Re: tenure

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:

> Tenure is a very difficult subject.  It protects the lazy as well as those who
> challenge the system.  It certainly does not select the best.

(1) The most obnoxious people in the universities don't need tenure -- they have
job security mostly because they are so obnoxious.

(2) For the rest, think not in terms of "tenure" but of "job security" -- that's
good for all workers isn't it, including the lazy and incompetent?

(3) Any system that weeds out the (current) lazy and incompetent will *also*
replace them with the same proportion of the lazy and the incompetent. Because . .
.

(4) Who will judge the judges?

I really don't think tenure is a very difficult subject. No other system will
improve the general level of
instruction and scholarship but almost all other systems will weed out the Paul
Barans.

Carrol