Faulty Towers
Tenure and the Structure of Higher Education
Published on 1. March 2004
96 pages
978-1-59813-253-3 (ISBN)
Description
In Faulty Towers: Tenure and the Structure of Higher Education, Ryan C. Amacher and Roger E. Meiners examine the internal and external reforms necessary to bring competitive forces to American universities and thereby improve them.
As debate accelerates over the declining standards in higher education, academic tenure is viewed with suspicion by many, who see it merely as job protection for incompetent teachers. Even many professors believe tenure is a guarantee of lifelong entitlement, whereby only the commission of a crime can lead to dismissal. Faulty Towers sets the record straight by elucidating the history, legal status, and common misunderstandings regarding tenure.
Tenured professors who have become incompetent are rarely dismissed, and superior teaching is rarely rewarded, although there is little to prevent universities from doing so. Tough administrators are also hard to find?in part because university trustees seldom hold them accountable. Faulty Towers explains how restructuring university incentives to be more in line with those of market-based enterprises would produce greater accountability, stronger boards of trustees, more effective administrators, and a tenure system that protects academic freedom but not substandard education.
As debate accelerates over the declining standards in higher education, academic tenure is viewed with suspicion by many, who see it merely as job protection for incompetent teachers. Even many professors believe tenure is a guarantee of lifelong entitlement, whereby only the commission of a crime can lead to dismissal. Faulty Towers sets the record straight by elucidating the history, legal status, and common misunderstandings regarding tenure.
Tenured professors who have become incompetent are rarely dismissed, and superior teaching is rarely rewarded, although there is little to prevent universities from doing so. Tough administrators are also hard to find?in part because university trustees seldom hold them accountable. Faulty Towers explains how restructuring university incentives to be more in line with those of market-based enterprises would produce greater accountability, stronger boards of trustees, more effective administrators, and a tenure system that protects academic freedom but not substandard education.
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03/2004
Independent Institute,U.S.
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Persons
Roger E. Meiners is the John and Judy Goolsby and E.M. (Manny) Rosenthal Chair in Economics and Law at the University of Texas at Arlington, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, Fellow of the George W. Bush Institute, and Senior Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center. Having received his Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech and J.D. from the University of Miami, he has served as Director of the Center for Policy Studies at Clemson University, a faculty member at Texas A & M University and Emory University, Director of the Atlanta Regional Office of the Federal Trade Commission, Associate Director of the Law and Economics Center at Emory University, and a Member of the South Carolina Insurance Commission.
Ryan C. Amacher (1945-2016) was Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and former President at the University of Texas at Arlington. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, and served as Dean of the College of Commerce and Industry at Clemson University, Chairman of the Department of Economics at Arizona State University, Senior International Economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oklahoma, Economist at the General Electric TEMPO Center for Advanced Studies, and Consultant to the Federal Trade Commission.
