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On top of massive funding cuts and threats to the University of Wisconsin’s mission, Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers are finding another way to attack the state’s higher education system: by weakening tenure for faculty. While this may be a political move, what they’re really doing is attacking their own children’s future.
Republicans like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos may say that they don’t like the idea of someone having a lifelong, guaranteed job through a tenured position at a university. But that’s a misguided view of tenure and one that reinforces stereotypes about professors in the Ivory Tower who are out of touch with reality and can’t be fired.
The truth is that tenure is vital to creating a world-class university system. Tenure gives researchers, academics and instructors the freedom they need to experiment with new ideas, ideas that may be controversial and unpopular at first but may in time turn out to be very important to our understanding of the world. But tenure doesn’t just benefit the faculty members. It benefits the university and its students, too. After all, a highly respected tenured faculty member makes a long-term commitment to the university, brings in grant money, does novel research, and attracts top-notch students and provides those students with a high-quality education.
Without strong tenure protections, the UW System’s leading academics and researchers will leave. As we’re constantly reminded, we live in a competitive, global economy and UW faculty will look elsewhere for more supportive, welcoming universities. Already, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that two top chemistry faculty members and their research assistants are leaving UW-Madison for more secure positions at Harvard University and the University of Minnesota. Expect others to follow as more enlightened universities poach Wisconsin’s top talent who should be teaching Wisconsin’s students.
We shouldn’t be surprised anymore that Walker and many state Republican legislators are taking a short-sighted approach to education policy that highlights their lack of understanding of the value of a good education. But we are shocked that Republicans are creating a problem where none exists at the UW and destroying the next generation’s chance of enjoying a world-class education in Wisconsin. Do Republicans realize that they are attacking their own children’s future when they attack the UW?
