The Olympian

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Opinion

The faculty union would like to take a moment to honor those members of the faculty that we represent who are getting tenure today and those already tenured who have put in long hours serving on committees during the three-year process. Tenure has significant meaning to its recipients and provides essential structure to the college's mission.
Teachers and students require freedom of thought to do their work. Schools are one of the few, clear examples of a marketplace of ideas where differing positions vie for adoption on a relatively even playing field. Tenure is the primary reason that investigation, experimentation, argumentation, persuasion, skepticism, risk, and collaboration have such rich play in the college environment. Tenure is doing part of its job by keeping outside religious, political, and cultural pressures at bay. It extends the same protections from those same forces operating within the institution.
Tenure also contributes to making a meaningful faculty governance role possible. Without faculty freedom to point out poor decisions, challenge bad behavior, and oppose ill-advised policies, the college would be more bootlicking dictatorship than democratic community of inquiry.
The demands for accountability, assessment, and performance are all designed to fashion optimum environments and processes for educating students and supporting the evolution of talented, engaged teachers. Usually overlooked, tenure may be the single most important element in creating and nourishing a vibrant, productive, yes, even adventurous place to learn that is free from the worst fallout from fear and intimidation.
We welcome our newly tenured colleagues, salute their hard work, and look forward to their continued contributions to Olympic College life, governance, and learning.
We also look forward to the day when our adjunct faculty colleagues enjoy the practical and institutional benefits of greater job security, enhanced confidence in the protection of their academic freedom, and the reassurance of knowing where they are working next quarter.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools