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The New ‘U’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Timothy O. Lenz
Timothy O. Lenz*
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University
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Extract

Today's talk about tenure must be framed within broader discussions about the role of the university. Our university system is now over one hundred years old, the “Old-Time College” is gone, the “cold war” university is no longer viable, and the foundations of the modern “multiversity” are cracking, so it is time to talk about change. But change is not necessarily reform, and resisting change probably will not keep things the way they are, so academics must understand the forces reshaping the university. Whenever I listen to colleagues defend the status quo by saying that the United States has a university system that is the envy of the world, I hear echoes of the Detroit automobile industry's casual dismissal of foreign competitors in the early 1960s. The decision not to change did not preserve the auto industry, and it is unlikely to preserve public universities as we know them.

The current debates about tenure began with ideological attacks on “tenured radicals” who used their secure jobs to subvert conservative cultural values. The attack on tenure gathered steam as fiscal hawks in financially-strapped states looked for ways to save money and found huge state university systems with budgets to match. When asked why he robbed banks, the legendary Willie Sutton replied, “Because that's where the money is.” When asked why they are robbing tenure, legislators, regents, and administrators reply, “Because that's where the money is.” Personnel costs are a large share of university budgets and tenure ties the hands of administrators and legislators accustomed to using purse strings to control universities.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 10 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1997

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References

Notes

1. For an intriguing analysis of the development of the American university, see Ricci, David M., The Tragedy of Political Science (1984)Google Scholar. Kerr, Clark described “multiversities” in The Uses of the University (1966)Google Scholar. The term “cold war” university was used by Lynn Berk, a Florida International University professor who participated in a February 1996 conference on The Future of the University. The conference, sponsored by the Boca Raton Faculty Senate of Florida Atlantic University, was held in Boca Raton, Florida.

2. The report, The Emerging Catastrophe: And How to Prevent It, was issued by the Business/Higher Education Partnership (Tampa, Florida) in Fall 1995 and became a very influential action plan for some of the most important players in the higher education issues network: legislators interested in higher education, the Board of Regents and the Florida Secretary of Education, and interest groups representing the business community.

3. The enrollment figures are for the University of South Florida, Florida International University, University of Central Florida, and Florida Atlantic University, respectively. Growth is the highest priority for university administrators because Florida state legislators, worried about comparative data showing Florida ranks low in the number of collegeage residents with college degrees, stress increased access to higher education. University budgets include money for increased freshmen enrollment and threaten to take the money back if the quota is not met. Since the legislature does not complete the budget until early summer, after the high school recruitment season, Florida Atlantic University was forced to open its doors and beat the bushes for freshmen to meet its quota. The result is declining standards and stress on quality. FAU administrators also responded to the emphasis upon enrollment by issuing an order that class sizes be determined by classroom sizes.