As a firm believer in the importance of job security, I am surprised that I no longer support the process of tenure within higher education. While perhaps I am in the minority, I now understand the consequences of the system firsthand. While the elimination of tenure within higher education would prevent professors from taking certain risks in their academic career, it allows some to lose motivation for teaching altogether and only seriously focus on their research.

Professorship requires a skillful balancing act; professors must handle all the teaching responsibilities while also being an active researcher within their field. As a result, many professors will focus on their research and place their role as professor secondary to other responsibilities. This is where I think the danger lies in the current tenure system. While I don’t think entirely abolishing the tenure system in higher education is the answer, I also don’t think the current method is effective. Professors are unique in that after being offered tenure at an institution they must only fulfill basic job requirements to maintain professorship.

In almost all other job positions, both junior and senior employees will regularly undergo performance evaluations, however, this is not the case for professors. I personally believe that if professors underwent an evaluation process every decade after being tenured, this would be enough incentive for professors to not only meet basic job requirements but continue to make the groundbreaking discoveries that led them to be tenured in the first place.

While I understand the purpose of tenure within academia, I also recognize that tenured professors often abuse this title. It is human nature to become less motivated when there is no longer incentive to go above and beyond. For this reason I think it is crucial for evaluations of professors to continue even after being offered tenure.