What Is Tenure?
According to the American Association of University Professors (2026), a tenured appointment is an indefinite appointment that can be terminated only for cause (e.g. inappropriate behavior or neglecting one’s job duties) or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial emergencies and program discontinuation.
It protects teachers and professors from being fired or laid off for their personal beliefs and practices. It also protects academic freedom – the idea that a teacher or professor should be free to teach, research, and publish without fear of reprisal from the school, government, religious organizations, special interest groups, or from political organizations. Tenure also includes protection against saying and writing certain words and phrases.
Teachers of high school students may also be awarded tenure. Most states require 3–4 years of effective teaching at the high school level before becoming eligible, though some states allow it after two years. Tenured high school teachers have the right to a fair hearing and to know why they are being fired. Everyone should have this right!
Tenure is generally granted to high school teachers by the local school district and it does not transfer if a teacher moves to a new district. Additionally, tenure laws vary by state and do not apply to all educators. As you will learn, some states have reformed or restricted it. Tenure is increasingly being linked to teacher evaluations and student performance metrics in various states.
Is Tenure Important?
Yes! Without academic freedom, a teacher or professor is always at the whims of his or her school. One must only say the words that the school condones. Researching a politically charged topic may be discouraged. Discoveries that may challenge the conventional wisdom or some currently-taught truth might be terminated.
Everything is fine so long as academics, like I used to be, can teach, research, study, say, write, and publish any topic. Knowledge is not held back. The truth of an academic’s work will always be subject to the scrutiny of their peers (a very real thing), but the truth should not be shut down or silenced unfairly by an institution itself.
The other reason that tenure is important is job security. Universities cannot pay what the public sector pays. I know this for a fact! I was making $74,000 a year in 1999 in the private sector and was up for a raise as the Associate Director of Graduate Medical Education for the Mercy Health System Northern Region. I went to work for the University of Toledo in 2001 for $47,000 as an Assistant Professor of Health Education. That is a $27,000 pay cut with two kids in college! Ouch!
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Does Tenure Serve in the American Public’s Interest?
Yes! Education and research benefit society, but society does not benefit when teachers and researchers are controlled by corporations, religious groups, special interest groups, or the government. Free inquiry, free expression, and open dissent are critical for student learning and the advancement of knowledge. Therefore, it is important to have systems in place to protect academic freedom. Tenure serves that purpose.
Does Tenure Only Benefit Individual Faculty Members?
No! Although tenure does protect individual faculty members, it actually serves society and the common good by protecting the quality of teaching and research and thus the integrity of institutions of higher education. If a faculty member can lose his/her position for what he/she says in the classroom or for what he/she writes in an article, they are unlikely to risk addressing controversial issues. Would you? The common good is not served when business, political, religious, or other entities can threaten the livelihood of classroom teachers and researchers and thereby suppress the results of their work or modify their judgements.
An Example of a Professor Who Needed Tenure to Do His Work
In 2003, Marc Edwards, a professor of civil engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, discovered that high levels of lead were present in the Washington, DC, water supply. He spent years proving that misconduct at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency worsened the DC water crisis and endangered children's’ health.
In 2015, he found higher levels of lead in the water in Flint, Michigan. Despite reassurances by the Governor himself, state and local authorities, his findings were again confirmed.
Edwards set up a website, to share his findings with the public and hold the government accountable. I consider Professor Edwards a hero!
“I didn’t get in this field to stand by and let science be used to poison little kids,” he told the Washington Post, “I can’t live in a world where that happens. I won’t live in that world.” Neither can I.
Tenure protected Edwards from being disciplined, dismissed or silenced when his work risked offending powerful interests, including business or government interests.
Those That Have Earned a Doctoral Degree are Unique
The truth is that those that hold a doctoral degree like me (approximately 2% of adults in the U.S.) are unique. If earning a Ph.D. was easy, many more Americans would have one. Trust me! It’s not easy!
We should not be treated like an employee at will: a worker whose employment relationship can be ended by either the employer or the employee at any time, for any lawful reason, or for no reason at all. We are not employees at will.
Those that have earned a doctoral degree should be given the respect that they deserve. Let the internal processes work!
Just so you know, “at-will employment” is the legal default in 49 of the 50 states; Montana is the only exception, generally requiring "good cause" for termination once an employee completes a probationary period.
Do All Professors Have Tenure?
No! The number of tenured faculty within the academic labor force has declined to about 21%. In my opinion, it will continue to go down. Thus, the number of teachers and researchers who are protected when speaking in the classroom or publishing research on controversial topics is declining.
Under the Microscope for Performance
Every year, as professor who was tenured, I had to complete a full review of my performance – every class I taught, how many students were in each class, every student I advised, every master’s and dissertation committee I was on, every article that I published, every presentation that I made, and every grant that I wrote. Every year for 23 consecutive years!
That review went first to a committee of my peers within my department. I was on that committee and eventually chaired it. Thus, I know how things work. Then it went to the Chair of my department. Then it went to the Dean of my college. Every year for 23 consecutive years!
Add to that the same information was collected after my fifth year before tenure, immediately after you were awarded tenure, 5 years post-tenure, and every 5 years after that.
These tenure reports were looked at by a different committee of my peers from my college, this committee sent letters of warning or recommendation first to the Dean of the college, then to the faculty member, and the Dean sent them to the university “brass.” I was the Chair of the HHS College Committee for 3 years and wrote many letters.
It felt like I was constantly under the microscope to perform well. There was significantly more oversight in academia than in the private sector. Professors were under a microscope!
Critics of Tenure
Yet there are some who believe that tenured professors sit around twiddling our thumbs and brainwashing students. The professors in my Department and college of Health and Human Services did not have time to twiddle their thumbs or brainwash students. That I know for a fact!
Critics of tenure contend it can protect underperforming faculty and creates a rigid, expensive labor model. They contend that it breeds complacency, protects underperforming employees, and stifles innovation. Critics highlight that tenure causes institutional rigidity, creates high costs for removing poor performers, and prevents new, cheaper, or more innovative talent from entering the workforce. I say that is hogwash!
Knowing what you know now about how professors are put under the microscope every year, do you really think that a complacent, underperforming professor in going to last? No!
Consequently, many institutions are hiring fewer tenure-track roles, relying instead on adjunct or non-tenure-track instructors who have little job security. Put simply, these critics want teacher and professors to be “employees at will.” They want to fire teachers and professors with two weeks’ notice, no questions asked.
Let us not pretend or lie! Only states with Republicans in charge are causing tenure to disappear. They claim that professors are “woke.” These critics of tenure are against diversity-equity-and inclusion. Unfortunately, they use the terms incorrectly all the time!
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Read this Blog: https://1795consulting.com/are-you-awake/
I say to these state legislative leaders that they need to set foot on a college campus (in my estimation that have not in years) and try to do the work of a very busy professor. They will find that they cannot keep up!
States that are Guilty of the Great Disappearance of Tenure
Several states, led by Republican legislatures, have passed laws weakening or eliminating tenure for new professors at public institutions, focusing on post-tenure reviews and "intellectual diversity.” Uh huh! I have a bridge to sell you in the desert!
I tell all those who follow in my footsteps to not go to these states:
Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma have taken the most direct actions, with states like Tennessee, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina actively dismantling protections.
Guilty States
- Texas (2023): Discontinued tenure for new employees.
- Florida (2023): Implemented strict post-tenure reviews and banned certain curriculum topics.
- Oklahoma (2026): Banned new tenure at regional colleges.
- Tennessee (2026): Passed legislation allowing trustees to discipline tenured faculty without standard faculty input.
- Wisconsin (2015): Removed tenure protections from state law.
Other states actively passing legislation to weaken tenure include Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina.
I’ll say again, people with doctoral degrees and want to work in a state or private college and university should avoid these states.
The “brain drain” has already begun in many of these states.
The facit that many Republican state legislators are weakening tenure or causing it to disappear is no surprise to me. They are doing what their leader stands for.
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Conclusion
Education and research benefit society, but society does not benefit when teachers and researchers are controlled by corporations, institutions, religious groups, special interest groups, or the government. Free inquiry, free expression, and open dissent are critical for student learning and the advancement of knowledge.
Those that have earned a Ph.D. are unique. Because of their uniqueness (about 2% of the U.S. population) they should be treated with respect. They are not “employees at will” and should not be treated as one.
In my opinion, tenure track positions, like I had, will continue to be offered to fewer employees. Eventually tenure may disappear altogether. That would be a very sad day in America.