An interesting question came to me by way of a friend. Is there a way you can tell if a professor is tenured, on the tenure track, or merely adjunct? The question came up discussing if someone with the title "Associate Professor" already had tenure or was still working towards it. Anyone know? Thanks, Russ
I don't have an answer for your question just another question. How are you doing with your DBA? As I recall you saying yours will be Uof S not Argosy. North
In short, no. Odds are that an Associate Professor is tenured, but I know of more than one Adjunct Associate Professor, and regularly teach at a place where there are several (dozen-plus) tenured Assistant Professors. Jon Porter Indianapolis
I am not aware of any way, other than asking. Sometimes people put it on their resumes (I did, when I had tenure at the University of Iowa in the mesozoic era). You certainly can't go by the title. Nifty titles are sometimes offered in lieu of either tenure or even a decent job, such as our friend in Tennessee who was offered a one-year part-time position at Tennessee State, with the title, "Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy." She had to share a little desk with a graduate student.
Tenure is a status granted by the university to a professor. A Tenure track position is one that places the candidate in a postion to attain this status in some predetermined lenght of time. I know of no schools who offer tenure to Adjucts. Adjuncts are pert time contract positions. The reason for tenure is to give the professor the ability to freely speak his mind without fear of losing his position. Somewhat akin to a promise of lifetime employement if the prof does not violate ethics through immoral or criminal acts. Of course some universites have been known to have reductions in force by asking tenured profs to retire when the department is in trouble with too many profs and too few students. Some schools step up the process for those profs they would like to entice to stay or even come onboard. There are some conflicting view points as to the merit of tenure in todays' society. Some say it is unnecessary and just a propogation of an outmoded concept while others say it is just as necessary today as in bygone eras. I believe there is a need for tenure when it comes to professors in the Arts and Humanities. However the need for tenure in such disciplines of Engineering, I have doubts about. Maybe some of the full time professors who frequent this forum can provide some great insight. Regards, Dick An Adjucnt untenured guy.
Tenure is still extremely valuable in the humanities and social sciences. Certain interpretations of history are verboten no matter the research backing any conclusions. Profs who venture into these areas are usually attacked for intolerance rather than their research and sacked regardless. Specifics - I don't remember. Its all part of the fog of the past in my memory.
Hi All, I'd like to thank everyone for their replies. I would have posted my thanks earlier, but just returned back from Chicago to see son #2 get married. One left to go. What was really good news was to retunr to find I passed my comprehensives, so I can now truly say "ABD"! For North- I am reconsidering which school name to have on my diploma. I still think Argosy is a silly name, but they are making some changes in policies that may have some positive effects. I'm now on the fence. We shall see. Russ
One of the changes is more on-line rather than tutorial type courses. However, the on-line courses will still require a visit to campus for an orientation meeting. There are conditions where students that live a certain distance away form the campus will be able to "attend" the orientation via teleconference. Another change is to make the comps an on-campus proctored exam rather than the 2 week off campus route. My understanding isd they will be managed similar to comps at other schools. The tests will be closed book, closed notes, etc. There will be 8 questions. These are just a couple items I can think off the top of my head. Overall, the school seems to be making things more rigorous. There appears to be a move to focus more on research methods and raising the level of writing expected of students. Overall, I think these are a good things. I've always followed APA as closely as possible (though I screwed up the headers on two of my three questions on my comps). They held a (free, except for travel costs) comprehensive workshop, and for my money, the section on APA format was just a nice review. A few other folks were gulping- evidently they did not follow it very close. Also, the section on research methods and statistical test design was also a good review. Overall, they are taking a great program (for working adults) and making it better. I still think the name is silly, though.
