Owen asked: "I've never had Tenure. Does it really help?"
It would do, if academia didnt attract people who are so damned riskaverse. But at least at Clark, it seemed that people were looking form opportunities to have their freedom restricted. And if you are looking to be restricted, there are lots of excuses to be restricted in Academia. For instance, you can do the research that you think will please journal editors. Or you can only do research that you think federal agencies will support. Or research that university resources are being directed towards. Or research that attracts graduate students. Once the academic community bit down on Academic Reaganism, everybody started evaluating one another on how much money they were bringing in. And, of course, the University did all it could to encourage this sort of behavior. It tried to regulate faculty behavior with so-called merit raises .... George Orwell would have been proud ... which, on average were hardly up to the standard of living. In all my time there, I NEVER heard anybody stand up and say, "F* this crap: I am just going to do my thing" So, in the end, I am not sure about tenure. I think it made it possible for me to relax a bit in midcareer, write on what I cared about, and stand up for things I believed in. My family never suffered for my lippiness. Well, not much anyway. Consequently, I am for it for me. But then, I dont work there anymore. All the best, Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University (nthomp...@clarku.edu) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > [Original Message] > From: Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > Date: 4/28/2009 8:47:16 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] FW: NYTimes.com: End the University as We Know It > > On Apr 28, 2009, at 6:47 PM, Pamela McCorduck wrote: > > Some other takes on the essay, from Dave Farber's listserv: > > Nice! I suspect it's pretty right on in the academic world. Although > I'm a bit surprised at the mud-slinging at "far liberal arts". > > In industry, we were delighted to have the humanities finally become > part of the high tech world. We had anthropologists study our > organizations, and Human Interface experts (with expertise spanning > everything from psychology to brain studies) help us figure out how to > integrate computers into human activities. > > I've never had Tenure. Does it really help? > > -- Owen > > > From: "David P. Reed" <dpr...@reed.com> > > Date: April 28, 2009 4:34:57 PM EDT > > To: d...@farber.net > > Cc: ip <i...@v2.listbox.com> > > Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Op-Ed Contributor - End the University as We > > Know It - NYTimes.com > > > > I agree with Ben Kuipers below. But here's a simpler observation: what > > hubris allows a religion professor in Columbia to indict ALL graduate > > programs in ALL universities without doing any research whatsoever? > > > > Any serious professor in any serious graduate school would have never > > allowed him to get a Bachelor's degree, much less a graduate degree > > with that attitude towards the craft of learning... > > > > Flunk him out. > > > > David Farber wrote: > >> > >> > >> Begin forwarded message: > >> > >> From: Benjamin Kuipers <kuip...@umich.edu> > >> Date: April 28, 2009 10:29:39 AM EDT > >> To: d...@farber.net > >> Cc: "ip" <i...@v2.listbox.com>, Benjamin Kuipers <kuip...@umich.edu> > >> Subject: Re: [IP] Op-Ed Contributor - End the University as We Know > >> It - NYTimes.com > >> > >> Dave, > >> > >> A colleague forwarded that column to me last night, and here is my > >> reply: > >> > >> With all due respect, I disagree with this Op-Ed essay, > >> comprehensively. > >> > >> First, far from being "the Detroit of higher learning", American > >> graduate education, at least in the STEM fields, is the envy of the > >> world. (This is changing under the influence of Bush-era visa > >> restrictions that have made it more difficult for American > >> universities to get the very best students from around the world, so > >> graduate programs in other countries have been improving rapidly.) > >> > >> Second, Mark Taylor, the author of this essay, is a religion > >> professor at Columbia. Many of his criticisms are relevant to (what > >> I might call) the "far liberal arts", rather than to the STEM > >> fields, the social sciences, and many of the more empirically- > >> oriented humanities. (I have a great deal of respect for the > >> humanities, including the "far liberal arts", but they do face very > >> different intellectual issues from the STEM fields.) > >> > >> Third, while his praise for inter-disciplinary work is certainly > >> appropriate, he ignores the need for interdisciplinary work to build > >> on a strong disciplinary foundation. There was a fad for > >> "interdisciplinary studies" starting in the 1960s, that I believe > >> led more-or-less nowhere, but turned out people with inadequate > >> preparation to do interesting interdisciplinary work. (Do you give > >> an undergraduate a major in "Water"? What are they then prepared > >> for?) Herb Simon once pointed out that good interdisciplinary work > >> must be first-class work within the standards of each discipline > >> involved. > >> > >> Fourth, I believe that the importance of tenure for intellectual > >> freedom is not so much freedom from reprisals for controversial > >> positions (though this may be more of an issue in other > >> disciplines), but freedom to pursue the intellectual directions that > >> one considers important, over a career. This has proved to be an > >> effective way to get interesting and important new knowledge created > >> by a selected community of scholars. > >> > >> Fifth, to support individuals who devote a lifetime to pursuing > >> intellectual questions they consider important, an institution must > >> provide some degree of stability in its own structure. Certainly too > >> much stability invites stagnation, but a stable departmental > >> structure, along with a more fluid structure of laboratories, > >> centers, institutes, and the like, provides a good balance. I > >> suggest it already provides the flexibility that Mark Taylor would > >> like to see, without jeapardizing the stability that lets the > >> institution support creative thinkers. > >> > >> Sixth, if you were to seriously eliminate tenure, and create a > >> system where a significant fraction of senior faculty would get laid > >> off from the university, needing to find non-academic positions, I > >> predict that you would greatly reduce the level of creativity and > >> intellectual risk-taking in our major universities. > >> > >> Seventh, Mark Taylor raises the spectre of "dead wood" faculty, > >> impervious to leverage or change. Perhaps this is a problem in his > >> field or his institution, but I have seen remarkably little of that > >> in the departments I am familiar with. Over the course of a career, > >> the focus of one's efforts inevitably changes, but if the > >> institutions pays reasonable amounts of attention to respecting and > >> cultivating its senior faculty, the vast majority of them will end > >> up working for the benefit of the students and the institution, in > >> one way or another. If Mark Taylor is having a significant problem > >> with unproductive faculty who are unwilling to "assume > >> responsibilities like administration and student advising", then > >> perhaps his department needs new leadership. > >> > >> Summing up, I think that the critiques in this essay are > >> superficial, and the suggestions for change are wrong-headed. Some > >> of his ideas, like his praise of problem-oriented inter-disciplinary > >> work, are good ideas, but they are already achievable within the > >> framework we have. > >> > >> Cheers, > >> > >> Ben > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
