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News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education

June 9, 2006

Soft Support for Tenure

Americans back the concept of tenure — but they don’t necessarily know what it entails. Americans think highly of professors — except that a substantial minority of Americans doesn’t. Americans don’t rate political bias in the classroom as the top problem in academe today — but many think it’s a serious one.

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Those are among the findings of a national survey of public opinion being released today by the American Association of University Professors. The results are a classic case of “is the glass half empty or half full,” with plenty of evidence to show that academe is held in high regard, and plenty of evidence of vulnerabilities in public perceptions. The survey was conducted by an independent polling group and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent. AAUP leaders said that they wanted to measure public attitudes in light of the barrage of criticism from various conservatives that higher education is a center of bias and outrageous views.

In some cases, higher education does well in the survey — in part because Americans are increasingly critical of so many parts of society, not just academe. For example, 41.6 percent of respondents said that they had “a lot of confidence” in American colleges and another 48.7 percent reported having “some confidence.” Only 9.7 percent reported having “hardly any confidence at all.” While academics might prefer to have more people feeling much confidence in them, more Americans express “a lot of confidence” in higher education than in organized religion (29.9 percent), the White House (20.7 percent), and the press (10.8 percent). Confidence in the military did exceed that for academe, at 53.9 percent.

Confidence levels in higher education vary widely by group, the poll found. In terms of age, people appear to lose confidence in academe as they age — more than half of Americans aged 18-34 have “a lot of confidence” in higher education, but only 26.8 percent of those 65 and over feel that way. Politically, liberals (50.5 percent) are more likely to have a strong confidence level in higher education than are moderates (42.2 percent) or conservatives (30.5 percent).

In terms of tenure and academic freedom, the survey found qualified support. For starters, the survey revealed that only 55 percent of those surveyed had even heard of tenure for professors. (Those who hadn’t heard of it were read a definition that said that tenure was granted only after a probationary period of about seven years and that once tenure is granted, “professors usually can be dismissed only for serious misconduct or incompetence.") In a paper analyzing the results, Neil Gross, an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University, and Solon Simmons, a researcher in sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said that this large subset of the population that doesn’t know about tenure creates “considerable room for partisan framing of the issue.”

Other survey results reinforce that view, with strong majorities endorsing the concepts of tenure but also accepting common criticisms of tenure. For example, 76.6 percent agree that tenure is a good way to reward accomplished professors and 69.7 percent believe that tenure is needed so professors can teach. But 80.7 percent believe that tenure sometimes protects incompetent faculty members and 57.9 percent believe that tenure removes incentives for professors to work hard. More than two-thirds of respondents believe tenure should be modified in some way.

On academic freedom issues, substantial percentages of the public believe that professors’ rights should be limited in ways that contradict traditional notions of academic freedom. For example, more than half of Americans polled believe that public colleges should be able to fire professors who join radical groups like the Communist Party. Here are some results for questions about academic freedom:

Public Views on Academic Freedom

 

Strongly Agree

Somewhat Agree

Somewhat Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Professors who oppose the war in Iraq should be allowed to express anti-war views in the classroom.

29.0%

32.5%

14.4%

24.1%

Public universities should be able to dismiss professors who join radical political organizations like the Communist Party.

44.9%

17.7%

18.4%

19.0%

There’s no room in the university for professors who defend the rights of Islamic militants.

39.0%

18.0%

21.8%

22.2%

The best way to ensure academic excellence is to make sure politicians don’t interfere with research in colleges and universities.

50.1%

30.3%

13.6%

6.0%

The government should control what gets taught in the college classroom.

6.7%

13.9%

18.0%

61.4%

In looking at responses to various questions, Gross and Simmons characterized most people as being in a “no funny business” grouping: They generally support tenure and academic freedom, but their support gets softer when it comes to certain controversial topics.

One area on which the public has a view that is decidedly different from many faculty members is over the purpose of higher education — with the public taking a decidedly practical perspective. Asked about the primary purpose for higher education, 67.6 percent said that it was to teach students skills that they could use in their careers. Only 26.3 percent said that it was to teach students to think critically and only 6 percent said that it was to teach students about great works of literature, art, music and philosophy. There were few differences on this question by age, gender or politics, but among those who have a college education themselves, more than half think that the primary purpose is to learn to think critically, compared to just 13.1 percent of those with only a high school diploma.

When it comes to the charges of David Horowitz and others about alleged political bias being a major problem in higher education, the poll found that very few people rank that as the top issue. At the same time, substantial numbers of Americans think that it is a real issue. When Americans were asked to identify the top problem facing higher education today, college costs was a runaway winner, at 42.8 percent. It was followed by binge drinking (17 percent), low educational standards (10.2 percent), political bias (8.2 percent) and crime on campus (6.5 percent).

At the same time, many in the poll viewed problems that they did not rate as the top one as still being “very serious.” In some cases, there is relatively little ideological difference on whether people view certain issues as serious problems. But on other questions — such as political bias — there are clear breakdowns. Here is a breakdown — over all and by political orientation:

Problems in Higher Education Seen as ‘Very Serious’ by the Public

 

All

Liberals

Moderates

Conservatives

The high cost of college

80.5%

84.0%

81.9%

77.0%

Binge drinking by students

66.2%

69.0%

63.0%

66.1%

Low educational standards

48.9%

45.9%

49.6%

51.1%

Crime on campus

45.5%

50.8%

47.2%

39.0%

Political bias in the classroom

37.5%

34.4%

31.1%

45.5%

Too much focus on athletics

36.3%

39.1%

35.7%

34.2%

Incompetent professors

34.6%

35.7%

31.8%

35.9%

Lack of support for diverse student population

30.2%

39.6%

28.4%

22.6%

With all the issues facing colleges, is being a professor prestigious? Most Americans think so, according to the survey: 53.2 percent of respondents said that the job of college or university professor was “very prestigious” and 41.5 percent said it was “somewhat prestigious.”

The paper on the study notes that there is a narrowing of the gap between the prestige levels of teaching at the college or elementary school level. Whereas previous studies have found college professors to be much more prestigious, they enjoy only a modest edge now. While physician outranks college professor on the “very prestigious” scale at 71.9 percent, the percentage finding professors “very prestigious” topped those for elementary school teacher (50.2 percent), lawyer (33.6 percent), and stock broker (16.7 percent).

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments

Overwhelming biased sample

When your sample is 60%-65% left of center politically (as opposed to 40% conservative), a lopsided result like this is inevitable. It doesn’t tell us anything about public opinion, which is not so overwhelmingly one-sided.

Belle, at 8:45 am EDT on June 9, 2006

Belle, where did you get those numbers? I didn’t see any total percentages for political persuasion of respondents in the linked paper, but I skimmed it rather quickly. I did see, however, that the survey pool was 1000 randomly selected people, which is the methodological norm.

Curious, at 10:40 am EDT on June 9, 2006

I am sorry, Belle. Where did you get the impression that liberals were oversampled for this survey??? The sample was random and if you read the second paragraph is nationally representative, with a 3.4 error. Perhaps you are mistaking some discussion in the article on differences between views between conservatives and liberals (which on at least one question was reported as a 60/40 split) as being the sampling difference, but that is not the case. The article doesn’t report on what percent of people identified themselves as liberal/conservative. Perhaps more education on statistics and how to interpret survey results is what is needed in schools...

JCO, Economics Professor, at 10:40 am EDT on June 9, 2006

rich professors

Another perception the survey might have asked about is that professors (even assistant professors) are rich. My sister’s father-in-law was amazed to learn that I have to do my own laundry; he assumed I would have substantial hired help. My neighbors are shocked to learn that my salary is the same as or even lower than theirs. AAUP could do us a service by letting people know how hard we work and how little money we make.

Coral Hughes, assistant professor at public, at 1:35 pm EDT on June 9, 2006

Civil Engineering

Historically tenure has helped to shape the education in U.S., but it is not serving much of a purpose now. Exception may be some areas like sociology, political science, etc. where controversial topics can be discussed in the class because of tenure.I have not seen much of a freedom of speech being exercised by tenured professors.

In professional schools tenure hurts. Professionals with experience do not like to take academic jobs because they do not want to fight for tenure at that stage of their life. Professors who are tenured do not like to go out of academia and work in industry because they do not want to leave a secure job. Therefore, people do not come and go from industry to academia and vice versa. This is responsible for most of the professors teaching in professional schools without much of a full time industrial experience, not a desirable situation.In addition tenure gives people outside the academia false notions about working norms in academia.

May be tenure should be retained in few areas of teaching because of controversial nature of those areas, in others it should be dropped. Anyhow the permanency of job benefit of tenure is not too much of an attraction for professors in professional schools.

Sukhvarsh Jerath, Professor at University of North Dakota, at 1:40 pm EDT on June 9, 2006

Belle’s Figures

I believe that Belle is extrapolating figure about the breakdown of self-identified Republicans, Demoncrats, and Independents in the survey. The study polled 237 who identified themselves as Republicans, 239 who identified themselves as Independents, and 335 who identified themselves as Democrats (you can get these figures from the chart on page 21 of the AAUP report, linked within the article). That breaks down to 29.2% ®, 29.5% (i), and 41.3% (D).

This is where Belle’s gross error enters into her comment: she takes the three groups of the study and breaks them into two groups based upon her (unprovided) definition of a political center.

Furthermore, given the sample size in the smallest group (237), the margin of errorfor that group is only 6.5%, which large by some standards, is still quite reasonable. Add in the fact that the groups are aggregated AND identified by cohort, and we are looking at no room remaining for Belle to complain.

If Belle has found a serious problem with either the sample or the methodology, she should share it, though I suspect we shall be long in waiting for evidence to suggest such a problem.

Andrew Purvis, at 1:45 pm EDT on June 9, 2006

Statement of questions

I don’t think the questions could have been any better stated to produce a pro-status quo result... even though most of the respondants saw through questions about “supporting the rights” of terrorists. Perhaps more neutral questions would help.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 2:05 pm EDT on June 9, 2006

Problems

This is a good article on the on the AAUP report on its poll, but I must saythe poll and the AAUP report on it both have problems, in my opinion.

To quote from the report: “Our research shows that Americans ... are reasonably confident in U.S. higher education. 41.6% of respondents say they have “a lot of confidence” in American colleges and universities, with 48.7% reporting “only some confidence", and only 9.7% reporting “hardly any confidence atall".

The second of these sentences is a statement of results. The first is an interpretation. To put this interpretation in context, would you “reasonably"ask someone in whom you have “only some confidence” to:

a) deliver your newspaper? b) repair your car?c) perform brain surgery on you?

And where does “d) educate your children?” fit on the above scale?

To give the report its due, it mentions that higher education fares much better than many other parts of American society, and it is fair to ascribe much of the 58.4% = 100% — 41.6% to a general lack of confidence ininstitutions. But still, the AAUP interpretation is a considerable stretch.

The poll asked about tenure. The AAUP report stated two things (among others): 1) “Only 55% of the respondents in our survey say they’ve heard of tenure for professors before. Those who were not were read a short definition.” 2) “Our survey reveals that Americans are generally supportive of the tenure system. 75.6 percent of respondents agree that tenure is a good way to rewardaccomplished professors ...”

In other words, this poll counted the responses of both people who knew what tenure was, and perhaps had indeed formed an opinion about it (55% of those surveyed), as well as those who did not know what tenure was, were read a definition, and then, on the basis of about 2 seconds of reflection on the issue, gave an opinion (45% of those surveyed). It is hard to ascribe muchvalidity to the results of such a poll.

math prof, at 4:05 pm EDT on June 9, 2006

Soft support about says it.....

I have highly ambivalent feelings about tenure. I am all for academic freedom — but not academic license. At the same time I cannot support subjecting professors (or anyone else) to the thought police.

I think tenure is abused at times. A professor ought to be able to disclose their own opinion in class — but not at the cost of a balanced and thorough coverage of the subject matter. Nor should a professor seek to impose their opinion on their students apart from matters accepted as fact. An example of the latter would be that a student in a biology class must demonstrate an understanding of Darwin’s theories whether they believe in them or not — but a professor should not force any student to profess belief — only mastery.

I think some or many senior faculty are seen to abuse their superior position within the academy to in effect supress the freedom of speech of students and untenured faculty, but am uncertain whether tenure is a cause of this or not.

As pointed out in other posts tenure as currently implemented discourages cross-fertilization between faculty and practicioners in professional fields — and this is clearly a bad thing. I’ve seen the effects in my own field, software engineering. By far the most useful theoretical work tends to be done by people who straddle the great divide between faculty and professional practice.

Don Stadler, at 10:55 pm EDT on June 13, 2006

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