First, they came for the private-sector unions, especially in manufacturing. Then, they came for public-sector unions and financing for public higher education. Now, they’re after the professors themselves.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education,
Changes in collective bargaining could well have a broad impact on higher education—and have led to protests by faculty members and others in several states—but a number of narrower bills being considered in some statehouses are seen as a more direct attack on academic affairs.
A measure limiting sabbaticals to 3 percent of the faculty at any one time at Iowa’s three public universities is expected to be signed by the Republican governor, a former college president, as part of a budget bill there. Another proposal in Iowa, which has already died in the Legislature, sought to force the University of Iowa to sell its most valuable painting, Jackson Pollock’s “Mural,” worth an estimated $100-million to $140-million, to pay for undergraduate scholarships.
Tenure came under fire recently in Utah, where a bill to eliminate the practice was introduced in the state’s House of Representatives. The measure, rejected last week by the Education Committee in the Utah House of Representatives, was sponsored by Rep. Christopher N. Herrod, a Republican, who has also proposed legislation to require greater state oversight of the University of Utah’s public-radio station.
Lawmakers are inserting themselves even more directly into the classroom in South Carolina, where a proposal would require professors to teach a minimum of nine credit hours per semester.
Professors may be upset about the latest attempts to control their activities. But they never spoke up about the initial attacks on workers and unions. And now it may be too late.
It Is No Surprise That Tenure Has Finally Come under Open Fire. It has been in the process of attrition, or elimination if you wish, since the Vietnam era.
I am certain that no one believes that students, of their own accord, thought of mass protesting across the United States against the Vietnam War. Not at all! This bit of social activism was promoted by social science teachers, tenured faculty at universities; read: faculty that cannot be fired for anything short of a horrendous deed. Well! The powers that be will you will not let that happen again, it is far too dangerous to have hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people united in a cause against the action of the government. I might add that these days it is terribly dangerous for the people as well, to be labeled with the T word means that anyone can disappear Chinese style. (Vacation in Gitmo anyone?) At least the Chinese give one or two warnings.
Grassroots movements such as the Vietnam war protest are threatening to the accumulation of wealth and power of the super-rich .05% of America’s population. The simple solution, of course, is to eliminate tenure. Adjunct faculty and Masters degree students, otherwise known as Teaching Assistants, are not to be fired – – they simply do not get their contracts renewed. Not that contracts mean anything, I recently had a contract canceled by a major university – – a reputable public university – – it seems that contracts are binding only in one direction:-( So what is new?
Crank out mindless droids, incapable of critical thinking, questioning authority, digging deeper into the cause of things, that is the goal of current education and nothing more. If personal development were on the agenda, then we would not have eliminated the fine arts, poetry music and the like in favor of sports like football, basketball, and other painfully injurious activities which teach brutal crashing into each other and doing anything to win. Those heartless skills are valuable in the business place where competition and winning are everything and rules are there to be broken and keep the Little People, thank you Leona Helmsley, in line.
Speaking of keeping people in line, though I am a firm believer in some magnificent power in the universe, I would like to offer you a quotation from Napoleon Bonaparte:
“Religion is what keeps the poor from killing the rich.”