- Eliminate it altogether. In our litigious society, the protection from reprisals that tenure once offered is no longer necessary.
- Move to a more transparent model: tenure as a black-box process is terrifying and inefficient. The only thing worse than moving the goalposts is hiding them entirely.
- Hire professional management to run academic departments: good management would help more folks attain tenure, and have a better understanding of why they fail, if they fail.
- Cut it down to size: Offer tenure in 10-year chunks, rather than in perpetuity. This will help maintain performance and allow for regular reviews.
- Standardize the expectations within departments, and state any changes to those expectations when adjustments need to be made. This should be public and on paper.
- Offer a choice between a significant raise and tenure. Could be especially interesting in combination with #4.
- Create databases of student ratings that can make expectations more clear, both for pre-tenure faculty and those assessing them: if Class X traditionally receives much lower student ratings than Class Y, all parties should be aware of this, and adjust their understanding accordingly.
- Use database from #7 to demonstrate scores of current tenured faculty vs. pre-tenure faculty. Make this public to both students and faculty.
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Simon Ouderkirk 