Tenure: To Have and To Hold

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The following passage will seem very familiar to many of us: “I ... take you ... to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”1 These are the words of traditional marriage vows, and words similar to these have been invoked throughout the centuries to signify mutual obligation, sacred covenant, and lifetime commitment. Modern day divorce statistics attest to the fact that lifetime commitments aren’t what they once were. To some, the words of the matrimonial vows establish a desirable, lofty goal for which we should strive, yet of which we fall short far too often. To others, the words seem quaint, archaic, or utterly unrealistic. Is there room in the mindset of modern humanity to accommodate the permanence of such a covenant? The idea of having and holding with some degree of permanence is also central to the practice of granting tenure in academia; in fact, the word has its origin in the Latin tenere, meaning “to hold.” Some academic appointments have proven to be even more durable than the bonds of matrimony. Tenure may be codified in less lofty verbiage than marriage vows, but it is still laden with the language of heavy commitment. According to the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, “Teachers or investigators should have permanent or continuous tenure, and their service should be terminated only for adequate cause, except in the case of retirement for age, or under extraordinary circumstances because of financial exigencies.”2 In other words, until either retirement age or dire economic straits do us part. Are these words merely quaint and outmoded reminders of higher education’s past? Or is lifetime tenure still a vital component of a secure educational system in which faculty and students are free to speak their minds and investigate any area of their choosing? In order to discuss the future of tenure in American higher education, it is necessary to explore its past triumphs and present struggle for existence.