The conferment of tenure at a United States university provides substantial job security to its recipients. Tenure is designed to allow a professor the ability to explore new and risky research questions without fear of losing their position due to lack of publications. At the same time, this policy creates an incentive system with an ambiguous…

Discussions about tenure among postsecondary education dance faculty elicit a spectrum of perspectives and emotions ranging from excitement to confusion to fear. Faculty carefully weigh the potential for academic freedom and job security against the sometimes unclear and potentially unreasonable expectations regarding how to achieve tenure. These…

A combination of destructive trends in higher education--shrinking state budgets, stagnant student aid, the growth of corporate-style management, the overuse and exploitation of contingent faculty, increasing workloads and attacks on academic freedom--is weakening the educational integrity and professionalism of American colleges and universities.…