<p>*
Let’s face it: it is painfully difficult to actually win tenure at the top schools. Less than half of all junior faculty at MIT who are reviewed for tenure will actually receive it…</p>
<p>If many tenured, or likely-to-be-tenured, Berkeley and MIT professors were headed to Alabama, then that would indeed be indicative of something important. But if all we’re talking about is the standard tenure process attrition, then that’s nothing remarkable. *</p>
<p>I think it’s remarkable, because those same profs would have likely never considered the South if the economy wasn’t so shaky. Yes, it’s hard to get tenure these days, but if the economy wasn’t so awful, most of these non-tenured profs would be seeking jobs in other NE or western schools. They typically consider the middle of the US as “fly over country.”</p>