Tenure: A Conscientious Objection

understand the effects of tenure, it is useful to consider the effects of alcohol: The first draught is usually medicinal. The elixir is a shield against unbearable pain. It is administered, perhaps, as an antidote to stress or to cope with trauma. But what begins as a means to succor from physical and psychological suffering imperceptibly but inevitably becomes an end in itself. Without recognizing it, one grows dependent on the drug. It gradually begins to distort one's sense of reality and leads to saying and doing things one would not have done in a nonaddicted state. Often, it leads to a kind of languor and to neglect of important tasks. The alcoholic's once bright potential slips away in a haze of paranoia, hostility, irresponsibility, and self -disrespect. But, significantly, the alcoholic will not, cannot, admit to the addiction. The alcoholic invents all sorts of reasons why he or she cannot live without drink. The alcoholic is consumed by fear of life without a support line. And try as he might to avoid it, there is an inescapable and terrible fact that the alcoholic must ultimately face: There is only one sure cure for alcoholism-abstinence . Like alcohol to alcoholics, tenure is too important to the American professoriat. Among a sample of humanities professors, tenure was ranked as the most significant factor to be considered when seeking a job, and a cross-section of the general professorial population ranked it a close second to money. Moreover, where tenure was once a means to the noble end of unfettered pursuit of knowledge, it has now become an end in itself. The evidence of this can be seen in the transformation of the American Association of University Professors from a professional JAMES OTOOLE, a social anthropologist, is director of the Twenty Year Forecast project at the University of Southern California, where he is an associate professor of management in the Graduate School of Business. He is the author of numerous books, including Work in America and Work, Learning, and the American Future. His articles include 'The Reserve Army of the Underemployed/' published in Change in May and June 1975.