Revolving door syndrome plagues Yale tenure

Yale's gothic architecture is not the only reminder on campus of earlier European civilization-its tenure system evokes many practices dating back to the Middle Ages, when trades were organized upon a guild system consisting of master artisans, merchants, and teachers. Eager youngsters worked as apprentices, attempting to make a masterpiece that would meet with the approval of the masters and allow them to join their community. Soon guilds granted fewer masterships, and apprentices were forced to leave and become journeymen. Traveling from town to town, journeymen awaited the death, departure, or retirement of a master so they could fill the vacancy. More often than not, towns lost many promising young journeymen who left because of the inflexibility of the system.

In present-day Yale, almost 500 years later, the situation is not significantly different. Year after year, undergraduates witness the departure of some of their favorite associate professors. Candace Waid, Susan Neiman, and probably Lee Wandel are a few of the faculty members leaving due to the uncertainty of the tenure system or to the denial of tenure. At the same time, well-known, tenured professors like Geoffrey Parker and Jonathan Lear, SM '70, have announced their intention to take positions at other universities.

Aspiring professors do not receive tenure for several main reasons. First, some professors like Neiman leave Yale before their contracts expire because they are not promised tenure or tenure consideration. Second, since there are a fixed number of tenured positions at Yale, some professors have to leave because no vacant spots become available in their fields. Finally, the University rejects some professors in favor of other candidates who are more prominent scholars in their fields.

Yale's tenure system has been described as both a stroke of genius and as an overly politicized process. All professors and administrators interviewed agree, however, that the process is very complex-and sometimes even cruel to the junior faculty.

Yale hires young teachers as assistant professors under contracts for varying lengths of time, depending on specific departments, with the possibility of extensions. When a professor's contract is about to expire-usually after he has been at the University for five or six years-his department has the choice of promoting the professor to the rank of associate professor without tenure. The term for untenured associate professors varies from four to five years. Since untenured professors can only teach at Yale for a maximum of 10 years, if their departments choose to consider them for tenure at all, the process must occur during their penultimate year at the University-in most cases, during their ninth year. If the University is not going to consider or award tenure, then the associate professor must leave upon completion of his tenth year.

If the end of an associate professor's contract coincides with the departure, death, or retirement of a senior faculty member in his field, he might be considered for tenure. However, receiving tenure at Yale is very difficult because of the severity and the competitiveness of the process. The process starts when Yale sends letters worldwide to all the major scholars in the nominee's field. In turn, these scholars recommend candidates for the position, without regard to whether or not the candidate presently teaches at Yale. Once the University has a list of names, the nominees are invited to interview for the available position. The department subsequently compiles a "short list" of nominees, and its members vote for the prospective tenure recipient.

(See Tenure at Yale...continued)