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Section: February 1998

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James F. Carlin, the chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, is part of a new wave of corporate-minded experts with little or no experience in academic affairs whose aim is "to whip public colleges into shape."
Carlin has lately been making a name for himself hurling incendiary broadsides at higher ed faculty.
The Advocate asked Bill Murphy, president of the Massachusetts State College Association, NEA's affiliate representing faculty and librarians at the state's colleges, to evaluate a few of Carlin's proposals for "improving" higher education.

Carlin Proposal 1: "Give campus presidents full authority to run their campuses, including academic affairs."
Murphy: Campus presidents already have the authority to run their campuses. On the academic side, colleges and universities rely on shared governance, which allows for input by academics in academic decisions. The president gets the considered opinion of these experts. But the president still decides.
I don't know why Carlin would want presidents making academic decisions without hearing from those with first-hand discipline and classroom knowledge.

Carlin Proposal 2: "Full-time faculty should work more and when I say work more, I mean teach more"
Murphy: Teaching is the mission of our state colleges, and our faculty embrace that mission. Our state college faculty already carry teaching loads above the national average.
The business metaphor doesn't work for higher education. Carlin doesn't know what faculty do to prepare for classes, how much time they spend grading or advising students, what kind of college service or committee work they do, or what it takes to keep up with their disciplines.
He's also wrong to devalue research. It keeps teaching fresh. You can't have high quality college-level teaching without it.
Faculty workloads have been part of the union contract with the colleges for years. Presidents and deans haven't found these workloads a stumbling block in the past. I don't know why they should be now.

Carlin Proposal 3: "Get rid of tenure. Can you imagine a professor in 1997 being terminated for unpopular views?"
Murphy: I can certainly imagine a professor, without tenure, being terminated for unpopular views. Faculty without tenure would be subject to the whims of political expediency.
But tenure doesn't just protect the presentation of ideas. It protects professors in their roles as evaluators of student performance by allowing a professor to stand firm against pressure to raise grades. As such, tenure protects the integrity of the aca academy.
Finally, tenure protects faculty by providing for due process. It isn't a sinecure.