I was pretty astonished that amidst the many gestures toward the authority of economics not a single word was said about the supply of professors and how it might be affected by a substantial change in their compensation. The notion that tenure is a costly luxury that professors have imposed on universities, and that administrators need flexibility to "quickly reallocate resources," completely overlooks the kind of resource university faculty members are and the cost of producing them. The AAUP’s academic freedom argument also distracts attention from this important aspect of faculty work and compensation. Professors do not grow on trees, and university administrators — let’s call them bureaucrats — cannot quickly respond to ephemeral needs by shaking one tree instead of another, because the trees are not there to shake.

Read full article [here].
by Bruce Heiden, The National Association of Scholars.

Posted: August 4th, 2010, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.