Daily Prince Article - Tenure

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
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<p>One of the best articles I’ve read all year from the Daily Prince:</p>

<p>Tenure road rough for professors</p>

<p>Published: Friday, May 16th, 2008
“Professor Bernhard was the reason I majored in chemistry.”</p>

<p>When Jackie Latina '08 came to Princeton, her struggle in departmental courses freshman year made her think twice about majoring in chemistry. Stefan Bernhard, who taught Latina in CHM 407: Inorganic Chemistry, changed all of that.</p>

<p>Her experience in Bernhard’s class was “pretty much the reason I decided to be a chemistry major,” she said. It is also the reason Latina was shocked in March when her mentor was denied tenure, a guaranteed lifetime position at the University as an associate and then, possibly, full professor.</p>

<p>“It’s hard for me to comprehend how someone so significant during my time at Princeton could be denied tenure,” Latina said.</p>

<p>Kelly Wagner '08, another of Bernhard’s students and a chemistry concentrator, felt the same way. “It’s scary to look back and think that your last four years would have been totally different without that person,” she said. “[Bernhard] made you see that you don’t have to fit that stereotypical mold to be a successful scientist.”</p>

<p>Bernhard is not alone. In recent years, 60 to 70 percent of assistant professors who have come to Princeton did not become tenured faculty either because they did not receive an offer of tenure or declined the offer, Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin said in an e-mail.</p>

<p>Bernhard’s case sheds light on a greater debate about the University’s priorities in making tenure decisions and offers a glimpse into the intricacies of the process. The way that the University balances the roles of research and teaching when making decisions, the secrecy of the process and the potential for its reform have sparked disagreement among senior administration officials, professors, and graduate and undergraduate students alike.</p>

<p>FULL LENGTH: [Tenure</a> road rough for professors - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/05/16/21215/]Tenure”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/05/16/21215/)</p>

<p>Comment: This is an excellent piece- hard-hitting and well-researched. This part was particularly illuminating: “Even if a review did happen, Katz said he doubts that the administration would seek faculty input. ‘It’s not [the University’s] style to ask the faculty to think hard about serious questions of process,’ Katz said. ‘I think we’ll never be asked about tenure.’” It’s a shame the administration has the arrogance to consider neither student nor faculty input in its decision-making, instead opting to run this place like a soulless, tax-exempt hedge fund.</p>

<p>Comment: “A well-written piece proving what I’ve thought for awhile - the University does not care in the least bit about the learning experiences of its undergrad students. Princeton is not a teaching institution. In my four years here, I have only had one good teacher who was a tenured professor. If you want to learn here as an undergrad, you have to be good at teaching yourself. It’s a sad state of affairs, and something that would have swayed my initial college decision had I known the truth and not the white-washed college tour version of it. A suggestion to those upset about tenure decisions: petition. It has half-worked in the past (professors not necessarily receiving tenure, but being allowed to stay on longer than they’re supposed to be able to without tenure) and it doesn’t hurt to try.”</p>

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<p>Wealth, I agree with you that the article addresses an important subject and that it is very well-written. I find fault, however, with your highly biased selection of comments from readers. The feedback from readers is far more nuanced than you are suggesting and you have chosen the two most inflammatory and anti-Princeton comments to display. I’m wondering about your own bias. Here are some readers’ comments you chose not to show:</p>

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<p>Comment: “True, no chemistry professor has received tenure in recent years, but how many have actually gone up for tenure in that time? How do these statistics compare to other Ivy League institutions (all of which are notorious for denying tenure while gobbling up big-name senior faculty who bring the notoriety and clout that the Ivies throw around)? We’re poised on the doorstep of a new era in Princeton Chemistry: a new building which Nassau Hall is constructing to a faculty wish-list, new faculty to grow the research program here (and attract strong grad students), the goal of making Chemistry a “Top 5” program. I’m sad to see Stefan go, but this was not an atrocity. This is all part of the game in a life in academia. Don’t like it? Then it’s not the career path for you.”</p>

<p>Comment: “So, yes, excellent teachers will get denied tenure. But this is hardly a new phenomenon. Excellent teachers have been denied tenure for 100 years - the difference is, these days Princeton has the center for teaching and learning, and a variety of teaching awards, and otherwise actually has support structures set up to improve and reward teaching. That hasn’t always been the case.”</p>

<p>Comment: “My understanding is that at Princeton, you need to be a leader in BOTH research and teaching to get tenure. And for those of you who think that Princeton has shifted its emphasis towards research away from teaching, you’ve got it backwards. Princeton is more teaching friendly than ever before. It’s just that in the past, people didn’t know what the priorities were.”</p>

<p>Comment: “Princeton has been a major research institution for decades, long before Tilghman et al arrived. It is difficult for a major research university to provide an undergraduate experience equal to Swarthmore or Williams, but my education here has been superb. It is perfectly legitimate for a university like Princeton to strive to be among the best in research. One could even argue that with its enormous endowment it has a moral responsibility to produce the research that will change lives beyond those of the lucky elite who get to spend 4 years here.”</p>

<p>Comment: “I think it probably depends on department. I’m an '08 as well, and I’ve had generally superb teaching in my humanities department. On another note, the article was terrific. I would be interested to see the tenure rates at HYP compared. My sense–could be wrong–is that Princeton does a slightly better job than its top peers at tenuring junior faculty, although it’s clear from this article that there are plenty of problems in Princeton’s process.”</p>

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<p>Tenure decisions at major universities are frequently full of high drama and high stakes. As the comments from administrators correctly point out, tenure is forever, and a small university like Princeton needs to be absolutely certain that lifetime appointments are offered to only the best scholars and teachers. Certainly mistakes are made but I can assure you that there is no university in the world that hasn’t been criticized by the ‘losers’ in the tenure game. Princeton’s peer institutions have had plenty of cases of ‘tenure trauma’ and arguments over the relative weighting of teaching and scholarship in those decisions. Princeton’s process, while far from perfect, should be given credit for its relative openness compared to the process at many of its peers. It is somewhat unusual in including in these decisions, the views of a committee of senior members of the faculty who are elected to the committee by their peers. </p>

<p>The case of the Chemistry Department at Princeton is a special one and I have heard about the turmoil. On the other hand, as one of the reader comments I’ve posted above shows, the University is in the middle of a very significant expansion in the resources provided to that department. As the saying goes, eggs are being broken to make a new omelet. New appointments of important researchers to senior positions will certainly appear in the next couple of years and the situation there will look entirely different.</p>

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<p>Have to admit I can’t figure out why WealthofInformation who appears to attend or to be about to attend Johns Hopkins or has kids at Hopkins would be reading the Daily Princetonian anyway?</p>

<p>That said, yes, this stuff happens. The Chemistry Dept. has had some issues at Princeton. But the overall teaching from multiple data points I have is fantastic.</p>

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<p>For some reason or another, commenters on the Prince website take particular pleasure in bashing the University and the Prince itself. Despite what commenters there may say, I think that actually, the vast majority of students here are very pleased with their professors.</p>