professor fired, what happened to his tenure?

[kiryan]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/31/pc ... ve-debate/

so apparently he didn't have a tenured position, some sort of non tenured research position that he had held for like 34 years... and they fired him for what he claims is non PC research findings. I'd like a liberal champion of academic freedom explain this one because academic freedom has been trumpted for 20+ years to protect and fund the stupidest most outrageous unbelievable liberal statements made by people exactly like this guy, 30 year veterans of acadamia.

Acadamia is its own worst enemy in terms of freedom of ideas these days. There is only room for the majority opinion anymore (as long as thats a liberal opinion).

[Corth]

I wonder why he didn't have tenure in the first place..

Actually this is a pretty good example of why tenure was created in the first place. It absolutely is a vital element of academic freedom. If professors had to make sure their research didn't offend their bosses, obviously it would result in poor research. Of course there is a fine line - there should be a lot of scrutiny before tenure is granted.

Where I don't understand tenure is grade school teaching positions.

[kiryan]

It was an untenured position... kind of like some jobs are unrepresented (not union) even in a union shop. He probably could've taken tenured positions if he wanted a change.

I think you'll agree that tenure limits outside influence (government, parents, shcool boards ect). They're all for having that power internally to enforce liberal homogeneity!

I agree with tenure in principle, but there is such a thing as too hard to fire someone. Do you really want a good science teacher fired in the south for saying something like theres no scientific proof God exists? but you certainly do want to fire the teacher who isn't doing a good job.

[Ragorn]

Did a little more googling on the story. Seems there are two forces at work... one, his research is divergent from most of the other researchers in his department. Basically, 19 other people at the University are posting findings that say "this is bad" and Enstrom's research says "this is not bad after all." That shouldn't be a terminable offense... if anything, divergent results should be celebrated and examined. If his methods were shoddy or he was fabricating results I could see firing him, but no article I've read has accusations of mishandling the research. The University isn't even using his methods as a coverup.

Aside from that, it looks like he made several political enemies on the research board. He exposed one of the CARB members for faking his doctorate, and he filed a lawsuit after discovering that another had been seated on the review panel well past the term limit. Both board members were removed from service.

So my opinion comes in two parts.

1) This whole thing is pretty much bullshit. It's clear his firing was politically motivated and had nothing to do (even ostensibly) with the quality or methodology behind his work.

2) The guy pissed off all his co-workers and got two of his bosses fired. Are you surprised he got canned? I mean, honestly? Dude was toast, doesn't matter if he's working for UCLA or Goldman Sachs. It's unethical, but not surprising.

His appeal will be granted and one of two things will happen. He'll either go on to be proven right and become a martyr, or he'll take some invisible job in the basement of the research center where he'll be grossly overpaid for the rest of his life, under tenure, without being allowed to publish any further research.

In either case, the fact that kiryan said "liberal" three times in this thread makes me giggle.

[teflor the ranger]

Tenure was a device earlier in this century to help prevent coveted, unskilled civil service jobs such as grade school teachers from being dumped every time an election occurred.

Of course, those were different times and I very much support the idea of tenure being abolished for grade school teachers. On the other hand, researchers need some sort of stability, if not in the form of unionization or strong job protections, tenure is a possibility.

Of course, tenure is a two-edged sword. It means that before tenure, researchers work twice as hard to censure themselves, silencing their findings in hopes of obtaining the elusive tenure that they might one day use to actually just report their findings or do independent research. One day.

[kiryan]

I had a liberal amount of mountain dew throwback with my pizza today.

[Ragorn]

As well you should. That's the soda Jesus drinks.

[kiryan]

I bought 100 12 packs of throwback last week with my unemployment check. Thank you gubberment. 87 weeks of unemployment left to claim.

[teflor the ranger]

You... you monster. Oh well, time to take back a fraction of what you've already given them.