Janine Shelley

Temporary assistant professor of French

“I’m not saying tenure will be totally gone, but there could be more levels of evaluation and more incentives for a high level of performance.

“As I see it, tenure does not encourage the continued professional development of faculty members after they attain the level of full professor. As with any situation, there are always professors who may abuse the privilege and become less productive.”

Lee Tesdell

Teaching assistant and graduate student of English

“There might be some political pressure, like there was in Minnesota, to do away with or modify tenure. But I do think we need it to protect against faculty jobs — to protect against short-sided political decisions by universities.

“Teachers and scholars need to have the safety of a secure job to function well as teachers and researchers.”

Carol B. Volker

Associate professor of family resource management

(retires with tenure Jan. 31)

“Who knows? Things change so rapidly. I think there is merit in tenure. A lot of people who aren’t in academia don’t understand what tenure really is. A lot of people think it’s a guaranteed job and it really isn’t.

“To get tenure you have to be productive and demonstrate that you are a scholar. Once in that mode I think most people will continue to be productive and scholarly. Over time different people interpret the criteria for tenure in different ways.

“One drawback I see to the process of tenure is that it requires a great deal of time on the part of review committees and the professor. The complexity and the time commitment seems to be increasing.

“I don’t think productivity is necessarily related to tenure. In any profession you find people who are productive and those who aren’t.”

Brent Pearce

Professor of agronomy

(has tenure)

“It’s always a possibility. If it’s a fad it will probably occur at a lot of universities. Tenure was established to protect professors from political pressure.

“People who would like to have more influence on faculty would like to get rid of it. Tenure is a good idea. If they can reach tenure, faculty know how to be productive and are usually energetic people. They usually continue with that energy as they gain knowledge. After getting tenure, a professor is not as inhibited because they are not as influenced by political pressures and current fads.”