{"id":38171,"date":"2017-03-13T13:09:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38171"},"modified":"2017-03-13T13:09:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:09:42","slug":"lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tenure-word-cloud1\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I use a word,\u201d Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, \u201cit means just what I choose it to mean\u2014neither more nor less.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is,\u201d said Alice, \u201cwhether you can make words mean so many different things.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is,\u201d said Humpty Dumpty, \u201cwhich is to be master\u2014that’s all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

–I\u2019m quoting Lewis Carroll, but insiders into higher education could be forgiven for thinking I\u2019m quoting an administrator. I\u2019ve met quite a few that have said the above, more or less.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTenure\u201d is one of those words, like \u201cunions\u201d and \u201cfascism,\u201d that we\u2019re trained as children to instantly hate. We\u2019re told that tenure means job-for-life, but the reality is tenure just offers a (thin) layer of protection against administrative abuse. My blog has recounted many occasions where a tenured professor has suddenly found himself out of a job, simply because he\u2019s done something in particular to enrage a higher education administrator.<\/p>\n

Losing a tenured job due to administrative snit usually leads to lawsuits, of course, but there\u2019s one way to lose a tenured job that generally doesn\u2019t lead to a court case, because it\u2019s written into the tenure contract: \u201cfinancial exigency.\u201d Bottom line, if there\u2019s no money, there\u2019s no job, and I reckon we can all agree that\u2019s a fair reason to end a tenured faculty\u2019s career at an institution.<\/p>\n

Whenever Donald Trump says he\u2019s for something, the mainstream media immediately launches into paroxysms of incandescent rage about how wrong he is\u2026if he\u2019s for it, they\u2019re against it. My condemnation of the media for such behavior is somewhat reserved, for that is how I feel about administrative goals. If they want it, I have to be against it. The administrative track record of failure in higher education has such purity that this must be the case.<\/p>\n

Administration is against tenure, and constantly seeks ways to end those contracts, to thereby end the last thing keeping any level of integrity in higher education. Trouble is, those contracts are written well, it\u2019s not an easy thing to end tenure on a wholesale level.<\/p>\n

Unless, of course, you change the meaning of \u201cfinancial exigency.\u201d First, let\u2019s look at the established meaning:<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancial exigency — defined by the American Association of University Professors as a dire, institutionwide crisis\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This seems fair enough; if the whole institution is going down, then absolutely you want to toss the chattel, especially if that\u2019s what it takes to protect those huge billowing golden parachutes for the administration.<\/p>\n

But, as Humpty Dumpty pointed out, the AAUP\u2019s definition is irrelevant. What is relevant is who is master, and that\u2019s the administration. Behold the new definition of financial exigency:<\/p>\n

Lincoln has changed its rules to specify that financial exigency may be declared not only at the university level, but also \u201cfor specific colleges, schools, departments or programs.\u201d Faculty members with the shortest term of service now also \u201cwill generally,\u201d not definitively, be terminated before those with longer periods of service.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Wait. Keep in mind, gentle reader, that the letter of the law, not any assumption of fairness, is all you can hope will be followed. So seniority will count for nothing, admin can just fire all the faculty and replace them with sub-minimum wage adjuncts, using the food banks to keep them fed<\/a> because they\u2019re paid so little.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just cynicism, I\u2019ve seen the like enough times, but let me go over in detail how this will work. First, since exigency isn\u2019t institution-wide, it can now apply to just a specific department. Trouble is, administration sets the funding for the departments, so the university can be swimming in money, and just budget nothing for a department with tenured faculty.<\/p>\n

*ding* We now have a financial exigency emergency, as per the new definition.<\/p>\n

The adjuncts hired for peanuts the month before will be kept, and their course loads doubled, while the tenured faculty who\u2019ve devoted their lives to the institution are shown the door. Meanwhile, administration will award themselves 20% pay raises as a reward for how well they handled the budget crisis they themselves caused. This pay raise will eliminate the savings entirely, but admin will get a year-end bonus as well as further reward for handling the crisis. The next year, tuition will need to be raised to cover the bonuses and guaranteed administrative pay raises.<\/p>\n

I totally understand that most people won\u2019t have much pity for \u201cdead wood\u201d professors losing their \u201cjob for life,\u201d but I want to reinforce the extra meaning to this queer redefinition: higher education is run by an administrative caste that treats their employees as abusively as possible, forever seeking to break any contract that gives anything at all to the faculty.<\/p>\n

If they treat the faculty this way, why should anyone suspect that these guys will treat the kids coming onto campus fresh out of high school any better? If lifelong contracts can be switched around with no recourse, why would anyone suspect that the degree programs won\u2019t change from \u201c4 years\u201d to \u201c10 years\u201d if admin so desires?\u00a0 I’ve seen many students cheated due to administrative policy shenanigans already, and changing tenure will only give them\u00a0 more power. Can admin be stopped from doing this, or anything else?<\/p>\n

Probably not, as it certainly hasn\u2019t happened in the past, and stunts like this merely reinforce that the looting of our next generation will continue unabated.<\/p>\n

www.professorconfess.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I use a word,\u201d Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, \u201cit means just what I choose it to mean\u2014neither more nor less.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Alice, \u201cwhether you can make words mean so many different things.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Humpty Dumpty, \u201cwhich is to be master\u2014that’s all.\u201d –I\u2019m quoting Lewis […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":38172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[65894],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-38171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-financial-exigency"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWhen I use a word,\u201d Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, \u201cit means just what I choose it to mean\u2014neither more nor less.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Alice, \u201cwhether you can make words mean so many different things.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Humpty Dumpty, \u201cwhich is to be master\u2014that’s all.\u201d –I\u2019m quoting Lewis […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-13T20:09:42+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"204\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-13T20:09:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":934,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"financial exigency\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-13T20:09:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":204},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"\u201cWhen I use a word,\u201d Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, \u201cit means just what I choose it to mean\u2014neither more nor less.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Alice, \u201cwhether you can make words mean so many different things.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Humpty Dumpty, \u201cwhich is to be master\u2014that’s all.\u201d –I\u2019m quoting Lewis […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-03-13T20:09:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":204,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure","datePublished":"2017-03-13T20:09:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/"},"wordCount":934,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg","keywords":["financial exigency"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/","name":"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-03-13T20:09:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tenure-word-cloud1.jpeg","width":680,"height":204},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/lincoln-u-redefining-words-kill-tenure\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lincoln U: Redefining words to kill tenure"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38171"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=38171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}