Thursday, 5/1/97 Tenure troubles, low pay drive off UCLA faculty
Outdated process could be making public schools lose out to private
universities
By Hala Ali Daily Bruin Contributor The tenure process of the UC
system may be sending valuable professors to other universities.
Many people are beginning to complain that the tenure system at the
UC schools has become dated and is against the best interest of the
schools. The process of receiving tenure at UCs is a long-winded
one, involving reviews by several committees, fellow faculty, and
specific departments. Often a professor will be waiting to hear
from UCLA, and in the meantime, receive offers from other
universities, usually private schools with better offers. "Private
systems don’t have all these checks and balances," said Eric Gans,
a tenured French professor at UCLA and member of the Privilege and
Tenure Committee of the Academic Senate."Since (the UC system) is
so sluggish and slow, people keep waiting." According to Jeffrey
Friedan, an economics professor who left UCLA for Harvard in 1995,
the whole process takes from one-and-a-half to two years. "It’s
very frustrating," said Gans, "in some cases, it has to go all the
way up to Oakland." Russel Thornton, a UCLA anthropology professor,
agreed. "Better people aren’t going to mess around," said Russel
Thornton, who is also a member of the Privilege and Tenure
Committee of the Academic Senate. UCLA also loses some of its
faculty because of its inability to compete with the salaries and
benefits offered by private institutions. One of the reasons for
this is simply that UCLA, like many other public schools lacks, the
financial resources available to private schools. According to the
March 1996 issue of "Academe," the relative pay in public
institutions today has fallen more than 15 percent compared to
private independent institutions. "Private salaries are going up
much faster and UCLA is pegged in the middle," said Donkin
Mellencamp, chair of the UC-wide State Academic Senate. "It is
becoming tougher to compete." Unlike private schools that bid for
professors with perks like subsidized housing and admissions
preference and subsidized tuition for their children, UCLA has a
uniform set of benefits offered to its tenure professors. Although
many faculty agree that UCLA does offer good benefits, problems
arise with issues such as the high cost of living in Los Angeles
and the problems with the quality of education in the LA school
district. Many private schools are not only located in areas in
which housing costs are reasonable, but they may also offer
university housing. According to Friedan, Stanford has an extremely
generous housing program and the University of Michigan covers
one-third to one-fourth of a professor’s housing. "The public
school system in the northern suburbs of Chicago is much better
than LA," said Michael Wallerstein, a political science professor
who left UCLA for Northwestern University in 1995. He cites the
quality of teaching, the amount of money per child, and the size of
classrooms as the main factors that enable Chicago public schools
to provide a better quality education. Although problems exist with
the tenure system at UC schools, many say that it is tenure in
general that needs some alterations. "The tenure system is unfair
because the number of Ph.D.s being granted right now far exceeds
the (potential) tenure positions that are available," said Karl
Rosenquist, a former English lecturer at UCLA. Rosenquist claims
that Ph.D. students pursue the degree with the belief that teaching
positions are abundant. "The number of people being enrolled in
Ph.D. programs should be cut in half; they shouldn’t be lied to. To
work that hard for little payoff is depressing." Although he admits
that "the pressure to hire people of color and women in general is
a good thing," Rosenquist claims that it does have a negative side
effect on young, white males. He suggests that the older white
males implementing this "quota game should see that promotions (of
minorities and women) are made at their levels; they shouldn’t take
it out on younger white males." "In general, it’s a political game
played at the expense of new Ph.D.s." Many members of the academic
community, mainly students, complain that tenure becomes
problematic when professors get older and their quality of teaching
sharply declines. Students spoke of problems such as learning
outdated theories and having absent-minded professors. Although
Gans acknowledges that "every department has people that are
excellent and then flake after tenure," he argues that "you can’t
fire a professor for incompetence." Gans also says that there are
still incentives to retain a high standard of teaching and research
after receiving tenure. "Once you get tenure, it doesn’t mean that
you stop getting promotions." Philip Bonacich, a sociology
professor and member of the Privilege and Tenure Committee at UCLA,
feels that "tenure is misunderstood." "If people don’t perform
their functions, they can be fired," Bonacich said. Many students
also claim that the problem lies in the large amount of emphasis
placed on research, rather than on teaching. Students often feel
that their professors are teaching not because they want to, but
because they need resources to conduct their research. "Sometimes I
feel that lectures my professors give are not focused and clear
because they don’t spend enough time preparing (them)," said Dalia
Ibrahim, a first-year biology student. But Gans argues that "you
can’t maintain a department without research and most
undergraduates can’t judge (that) research." It is the protection
of this research and the development of new theories and scientific
discoveries that initiated tenure in the first place. One of the
main reasons tenure was established was to protect the academic
freedom of professors against those opposing their theories or
their research. It makes it impossible to fire a professor for
promoting research and study in controversial fields such as
genetic engineering and animal experimentation. However, some
professors, such as James Parry, associate vice chancellor of
academic programs for the Florida Board of Regents, claim that
provisions such as the First Amendment already offer protection
against such threats. Another argument for tenure is that because
it involves such a long probationary period prior to achieving
tenure, it promotes a higher level of scientific research and
scholarship. "Tenure works, it does protect academic freedom," said
Bonacich, "it takes a long time to develop an idea." People also
argue that without tenure, many people would not enter the academic
profession. It’s just a profound feature of the system itself, said
Gans. In an interview with the journal "The Scientist," membrane
biophysicist Arthur Sowers said "I think it’s very sad to see
highly dedicated individuals go into very, very specialized fields
to study and spend 10 to 15 to 20 years of their life only to end
up with a kick in the rear. Although there are many attacks on
tenure, and more specifically, tenure at UC schools, UCLA has made
some efforts to improve its tenure system and to retain and attract
distinguished faculty. According to Mellencamp, the state budget
has increased and faculty will receive a five-percent increase in
their salaries if the budget goes through in October. UC schools
utilize the average salary from a group of eight highly-ranked
comparison schools and target its salaries at that average,
Mellencamp said. This five-percent increase is intended to catch up
to this average. "In the sciences and engineering, we now have to
offer a large start-up amount," Mellencamp continued. He gave
examples of benefits such as the furnishing of a lab, making
accommodations to those trying to finish their post-doctoral
degrees, loan programs, low-interest loans on housing, and on a
number of campuses, faculty housing. Establishments such as the
Seeds University Elementary School at UCLA are aimed at alleviating
the problem of what is considered to be by some a poor quality of
education in the L.A. area. UCs also try to attract faculty "by
making adjustments and special arrangements to remain competitive,"
Mellencamp said, citing offers of summer salaries. "We try to be as
creative as we can." UCLA has also made efforts in trying to deal
with dual-career families. It sometimes tries to find positions at
UCLA for spouses both in and out of the academic arena. According
to Thornton, UCLA will often try to match offers that people
receive from comparable institutions. However, "it depends on the
circumstances, who they are, and where the job offer comes from,"
He said. "I was at Berkeley and they told me ‘we’ll match anything
you get,’" Thornton said. Although many people feel that tenure
does need some changes, most of the academic community agree that
is an essential aspect of college teaching." "You’re not going to
have a good university without tenure," Thornton said.