What you need to know about property rights and protection of free speech

There is one professional golden ticket in higher education: tenure. For academics, securing tenure — a highly coveted permanent teaching position at a college or university — usually requires years of education, a rise through the professors, and a scholarship. The benefits are considerable: job security for an indefinite period, better pay and prestige. One of the most important protections of tenure is academic freedom, which allows professors to speak and work freely without fear of punishment by their institution.

At the University of Pennsylvania, a conflict involving Amy Wax, a tenured law professor accused by some students of making racist and xenophobic statements, has put tenure protections and free speech back in the spotlight.

Here’s what you need to know about tenure.

What does it mean to have tenure?

Tenure is a permanent academic tenure that exists to “protect academic freedom,” according to the American Association of University Professors. A tenure “can only be terminated for cause or under extraordinary circumstances”, such as a financial emergency or if a program is discontinued, says the association.

But professors could lose their tenure if a university finds personal misconduct. Even then, there can be a lot of controversy over the decision, as was the case with Joshua Katz, a tenured professor of classical languages ​​at Princeton. The administration fired him last year, saying he had not been completely honest and cooperated with an investigation into his sexual relationship with an undergraduate student about 15 years ago. However, others believed that Dr. Katz was instead targeted by his politics. In 2020, him wrote an article in Quillettean online magazine, which was critical anti-racist proposals by Princeton faculty, students, and staff.

In the case of Professor Wax, free speech groups recognize that some personal discussions with students – if they were to take place – could be considered offensive and not protected by tenure.

What is the history of tenure?

Tenure as it is known today dates back decades, to the 1940 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. These principles essentially stated that a teacher or researcher should have the freedom to discuss ideas and seek the truth without fear of censorship or discipline. The principles also established that other faculty members should have input if a matter of discipline arises.

The basic principles have not changed since then, but the academic labor market has. The number of tenured appointments in science has fallen sharply in recent decades and the percentage of professors on tenure track has been declining since the 1970s. In 1995, for example, about 43 percent of those teaching were tenured or on their way to becoming tenured; by the fall of 2019, only a third of college professors had tenure or were on track to receive it.

Colleges and universities are increasingly relying on the labor of graduate students or adjunct faculty members, who often have a heavy workload, much less job security, and a much higher risk of sudden dismissal.

The decision at an institution to award or deny tenure is an important one and has occasionally made national news, such as in 2021 when the University of North Carolina named Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, denied tenure. She turned down the position and now teaches at Howard University.

To what extent does tenure protect freedom of expression?

In academia, freedom of speech is not enshrined in the First Amendment, but rather in institutional policies and precedent, according to a guide to freedom of expression on campus published by PEN America. “While the First Amendment deals with a relationship between a government and its people, academic freedom is mostly between an institution and its faculty,” the guide says.

Most institutions define academic freedom as “the protection to pursue knowledge ‘wherever it leads’,” the guide says, with tenure protecting professors from retaliation if that pursuit leads to “a dangerous or unpopular place.”

What are the freedom of speech concerns at Penn?

Students at the University of Pennsylvania have long expressed concern over public comments made by Professor Wax that they believe are racist, sexist and xenophobic.

Professor Wax has said publicly that “blacks have, on average, lower cognitive ability than whites” and that the country is “better off with fewer Asians” as long as they vote Democrats.

She has denied saying anything disparaging or racist to students, and her supporters say she has been targeted for censorship because of her conservative views.

Recently, Theodore W. Ruger, the dean of the law school, took the highly unusual step of filing a complaint with the university about Professor Wax and requesting a faculty hearing to consider imposing a “heavy sanction” on her . Professor Wax, he said, had violated the university’s professional standards and non-discrimination policy.

His response has sparked outrage from free speech groups, who say protecting free speech is an integral part of tenure and the academic freedom it provides.