News: Threat to Tenure in Florida May Be Over
Despite the ominous final line in the article, I have it on good authority that this battle is over, at least for this year. We need to start planning for the next round. I have some ideas which I will share with you shortly, once my blood pressure fully returns to normal.
Dr. Sandy Shugart, President of Valencia Community College, has gone on record to discuss the merits of tenure. I was elated to see his open letter in the print version of the Orlando Sentinel today. Here is the link to the electronic version:My Word: Tenure's a Mark of Achievement
As beautiful as the e-version is, with scroll bars and comments and 5 stars, it turns out that I'm an old-fashioned girl. When something meaningful and elegant needs to be said, I love it best in newsprint. That's why I'm framing this for my wall.
2 comments:
I hope that you can clarify the below:
Dr. Shugart says that only 1 out of four Valencia professors is tenured. Is this 25% of full-time regular faculty? Or is this 25% of the entire faculty which must include a large percentage - even a majority - of people who are not eligible for tenure (adjuncts, part-timers, annual contract instructors, multi-year contracts off the tenure-track)?
If the one in four is all faculty, do you know the percentage of full-time faculty that is tenured?
Thanks for the question.
There are 432 full-time faculty at Valencia. 278 of them have tenure. In addition, 83 of the remaining full-time faculty are on the tenure track. The remainder of full-time faculty are not in tenure-earning positions.
Dr. Shugart was referring to the full faculty body, which comprises approximately 1100 faculty members, over 400 of which are part-time faculty.
Looking at it that way, we are around 25% tenured.
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