Guardians of Mediocrity

The essays in this collection document abuses of power with regard to tenure reviews on college and university campuses in the United States. We sought to collect as varied a group of stories as possible, including two final essays not by professors who were denied tenure but by faculty who left their positions voluntarily due to the same abusive dynamics that have resulted in unjust tenure decisions. We included these last two essays as a way to broaden the discussion—the issue here does not only pertain to institutional failures to check the power of incompetent and malicious administrators; it is also about the nature of higher education, about our values as a country at this particular time in history, about the anti-intellectual forces that prevail in discussions of civil rights and equality.

The intrepid authors who have offered their stories for inclusion in this collection represent a small percentage of the large (and growing) body of teacher-scholars with advanced degrees who are surviving a denial of tenure. We believe this points to a dire need to revise the tenure application process.

Tenure is a necessary feature of higher education because in a democracy we care about due process and about protecting freedoms. However, the procedures for achieving tenure need to be re-evaluated at most institutions of higher education. As the events described in these essays attest, we need better checks and balances and better oversight.