Universities have historically been (unwitting to willing) agents of segregation and patriarchy. Recent decades have brought some progress (often more rhetorical than substantive). We now face an existential test in many dimensions, but I'd like to focus here on faculty promotion and tenure (P&T) 1/ - ThreadSky

jedbrown.org • 19 days ago

Universities have historically been (unwitting to willing) agents of segregation and patriarchy. Recent decades have brought some progress (often more rhetorical than substantive). We now face an existential test in many dimensions, but I'd like to focus here on faculty promotion and tenure (P&T) 1/

Comments

jedbrown.org•19 days ago

Most departments consider funding for P&T, and R1 universities usually require funding success (from nominal dollar amounts to "sufficient to support a vigorous research program"). Applying those standards, even while informally compensating for agency actions, is to be an agent of segregation. 2/

jedbrown.org•19 days ago

University charters and policies will have some language about academic freedom. Mine says administration "shall resist such pressures or interference when exerted from inside or outside the university." But defending academic freedom is eternally at the bottom of administration's priority list. 3/

jedbrown.org•19 days ago

There are countless ways the Trump administration and GOP Congress are trying to destroy academic freedom and re-segregate the academy. This is one that faculty and university administrators will inflict upon themselves without proactive opposition by faculty and unions. 4/

jedbrown.org•19 days ago

Revising P&T guidelines and forcing the hand of deans and provosts and committees, to be able to promote and tenure faculty who are denied resources by segregationists, and to hire scholars doing necessary research that is temporarily unfundable, will be an uphill battle that must start now. 5/

jedbrown.org•19 days ago

This runs deep, threatening the business model and toxic metrics that everyone knows is harmful but administrators still celebrate. Ranking lists will punish universities for protecting academic freedom and their mission. Faculty governance needs leaders with vision and courage. 6/

jedbrown.org•19 days ago

However, I don't think faculty governance will be enough. University presidents respond too much to donors and reactionary politics, and they'll hear that faculty are too radical and attacking the fiscal health of the university. And faculty will question themselves, undermining their own power. 7/

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply