TexasCHLforum.com

mojo84 wrote:No, it doesn't make me feel any better. I couldn't care less where you "attended".

I only mention it because it might lend credence to me saying that the actions of one professor do not necessarily reflect the political climate of the institution, at least in this case. I understand completely that you don't care, just consider that it might be pertinent to the discussion of A&M.

mojo84 wrote: I didn't say fire anyone. I'm talking about not guaranteeing someone a job for life. Other than federal judges, who else has that guarantee? Do you?

I just asked if that would take care of the issue from your perspective. No, I don't have guaranteed employment of any kind. I also don't think that you fire someone from a place of employment due to their political leanings, at least not necessarily. Firing her for politically protected speech, tenure or not, is a bad idea. It mattes not if you agree with her speech.

I do think some union employees have pretty good employment guarantees in many cases. Unions may provide more protection than tenure in some cases.

Honestly, the tenure system is changing. I don't know anything first hand, but my friends that are life-long academics recognize it as a dinosaur and it's being impacted by online education and the financial realities of education at both publicly funded and private institutions. What always got me riled up about tenure was professors that would get it and then would shift to private practice, while drawing full salary and benefits for years. I knew professors that were at the university (not A&M) 1-2 days a week and worked on their "other job" the rest of the time. I saw this mainly a smaller (public) institutions as I had departmental access. Institutions like A&M and those up the chain forced professors to produce (research or income) in order for them to be considered to be on staff.. Although I suspect a few of those at A&M eventually faded into pre-retirement levels of activity also.

mojo84 wrote:Not much I can do about private schools. If they want to be liberal and have tenure, that is their business. I dont have to send my money to them or support them.
The subject of the thread is a Texas A&M (publicly funded university) professor.

Mojo, if it makes you feel any better, I attended A&M.. The actions of a single professor do not reflect the political leanings of the institution, trust me. If nothing else, if her statements garner more attention on the current plight of the 2nd amendment in Texas, then perhaps some good was done.

Are you proposing that we fire all the liberal college professors that teach in public institutions? Or just the ones that make provocative statements? Just curious... Would that fix the issue?

mojo84 wrote:Churches aren't publicly funded with my tax dollars.

We do have private colleges.. At last count, quite a few.. I didn't know you were concerned about only "public" universities. It's not like the liberal academic bias only exists with the public ones.

I understand why this sort of thing incensed conservatives... Especially out of a conservative school like A&M. Tenure may protect her job, but I assure you, comments have repercussions.

mojo84 wrote:Tenure creates another protected class of elites that is not necessary.
When did you "earn" your tenure?

Most protected classes, IMHO, earned their status at one time or another. Protecting classes that don't need protecting doesn't have a strong historical basis. The problem is that we continue protecting them forever.

I think it's a bit like having unions. Generally, industries that got one unions deserved what they got at one time or another. When that changes years down the road, it's a bit hard to shake off - part of why Detroit got so screwed up a few years back. Paying guys $100k to do assembly line work with pensions, and heathcare / legal resources for life gets really expensive. No offense to our auto industry workers intended.

Academia is largely a place for liberal ideas. That's just how it is. Remember that some of these liberal ideas have had their place in history and contributed to the basis of our country too... Slavery, equality for women, property ownership rights - these were all "liberal" ideas at one time.

There are certainly tenure riding conservative professors, admittedly not as many. Trying to balance academia more towards the conservative side is not going to happen. You can't do that any more than you could balance leadership in conservative institutions like churches.

yikes...