After 815 Years, Idea of Tenure Still Hotly Disputed
First in a Series
By ERIC MEYER
Kanaan Staff Reporter
Tenure has come a long way since 1158, when Barbarossa, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, joined with the papy in the first recorded attempt to shield university scholars from would-be assailants.
Today, more than eight centuries later, the tenure controversy continues to be a central issue in the discussion of higher education, especially at the University of Chicago.
The system of faculty tenure in force at KU is based on a 1940 policy statement by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
In a report released this year, AAUP and the Association of American Colleges (AAC) reaffirmed their commitment to the 23-year-old tenure policy.
THE FOUR COMMITTEES studying
tune up YOU have reached almost the same con-
centration.
whether the AAUP report nor the four committee reports supported any alteration.
AAUP said the alternatives wouldn't protect academic freedom or eliminate any
Opponents of tenure have said that it caused professors to become incompetent and that it limited the financial flexibility of institutions of higher education.
"What often happens, in any institution, with the just plain incompetences or prematurely senile," Richard Paxson, Baxter Springs senior, said recently, "is that every grits his teeth, puts those ugly upskins in a corner and tries to get by."
"HOW FAR CAN YOU be humane and not get a methotrexate institution?" asked Nicolas Levy. "I am not."
Tenured faculty may be fired for only two reasons—immorality or insanity. According to an old faculty joke, insanity is attributed to detect in university professors.
A professor fired by Stanford University last year was the first tenured faculty member fired from a major university since the McCarthy era.
The first professor, Bruce Franklin,
allegedly, incited students to disrup-
ture the government.
By a 5-2 vote, a faculty board fired Franklin for his alleged actions.
NO ONE ATTACKED Franklin's competence as a teacher. Rather, it was his overtly revolutionary life style that caused his termination.
The case demonstrated, another Stanford professor said, that "what often happens is
that a tenure case turns out to be a teacher of skill and personal rectitude who is a social, political or personality non-conformist."
In arguing Franklin's case before the board that fired him, one of the dissenting board members said, "We seek to keep him on the job. We need him to be part of what this university is meant to be."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which helped defend Franklin, based its case on the differences between advocacy and incitement.
Franklin's professed Maistar-Marxist ideas clashed with the ideas of the admirers.
WITHOUT FRANKLIN, the disseminating
chairman of the board, Stanford would be
able to send out materials.
The recent AAUP-ACC report cited the Franklin card and reasserted that the
purpose of tenure was to ensure academic freedom.
BUT CRITICS of tenure have said it created a civil service mentality in which experience was more important than excellence. And they maintained tenure didn't protect academic freedom but was merely a job-security system.
A 1971 Harvard study of tenure said tenure was "a partial cause of the 'malise' of American colleges and universities and has been interfering the health of American academia."
The Harvard study was about the materials consulted by KU's Committee on Research.
UNLIEK THE HARVARD REPORT, the KU committee recommended continuation of academic tenure "unequivocally and with renewed commitment."
KU committee chairman T. P.
Srinivasan, professor of mathematics, said the recommendation to continue the present system of tenure resulted from interviews with tenured and nontenured faculty members and administrators, correspondence with colleagues in other universities and reading several published studies.
An ACLU publication that was studied by the committee said teture was an "embodiment of the postulate that faculty are responsible for the university, but are the university."
ACLU SAID TENURE also prohibited universities from making bad appointments
"The occupational work of the vast majority of people is largely independent of their thought and speech," ACLU wrote. "Professor's work is his thought and speech."
See TENURE DISPUTED on Back Page
Credit Hours Down, Enrollment Figures Up
Chancellor Archie R. Dykes yesterday said this semester's enrollment at the University of Kansas could be the largest of any institution yet. Most students would be smaller than usual.
"It appears, based on preliminary figures," Dykes said at his weekly press conference, "that our head-count enrollment will be at its highest level ever. As a matter of fact, it's beyond what we had projected.
"But it also appears that the number of students enrolled are carrying fewer hours and that our student credit-hour production—that is, the enrollment of full-time students—is understaffed."
FINAL FIGURES will be released Monday, according to William Kelly, president of the National Foundation.
Second, Dykes said, more students have to work part-time to meet the rising costs of education.
"I think there are three reasons for the lighter load being carried by our students," Dykes said. "One is: we have more adults with us than students without exception, part-time students."
"And third," he said, "I think our students are just carrying light loads. I don't know why, but that has been a trend now for several years at every level. Our students, from year to year, seem to be carrying a lighter class load."
THE NUMBER of full-time equivalent students (PTES) is two times for much of the year.
Dykes said that many of the other rich and important learning experiences were not taken into account when funding was based on FTES.
"I think there are basic inequities in that system," Dykes said. "There are many things that a university does, especially a university like the University of Kansas. There are differences in experiences that students have that aren't quantifiable in student credit hours."
"NONE OF THESE contribute to student credit hour production and, as a consequence, are not funded adequately," he said.
In addition, he said, there were also many other functions of the University that weren't taken into account, including research, maintenance and services.
There are also administrative inequities in counting only FTES, be said, because registration expenses for a student taking only six hours may be even more expensive than registration expenses for a student taking a full load.
"In many cases, the services required by students carrying a part-time load are as large as those required by full-time students," he said. "And, yet, the student credit hour formula does not take that into account."
A study is now under way to develop a new budgeting formula, Dykes said. Student blood hour production would still be needed, said, but there would be other factors, too.
"IF WE WERE TO GO to the formula machine," he said, "I suspect that funds would be allocated on the basis of the discipline in which the student hour was taken, the level at which the student was taken, and the funding afforded for the basis of the cost of those programs."
Dykes said a student credit hour at the graduate level would generate more funds than an hour at the freshman level, if such a formula were adopted. Or, he said, a credit hour in a more expensive discipline would generate more than an hour in a less expensive discipline.
"It would be a much better system of ending the institution than we've got now," said Jill D. Baldwin.
Tenure Timetable Proposed
BY ERIC MEYER
Kansas Staff Renorter
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansa
The University Senate Executive Committee (SenEx) yesterday proposed a timetable for the implementation of 22 proposed changes in the tenure system at the University of Kansas.
City Commissioners Vote To Order New Sidewalks
The timetable was included in SenEx's report on the findings of the four committees appointed last summer to study tenure.
Wednesday, October 3,1973
The Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously yesterday to order the construction of 1,230 feet of new sidewalks in an area bordering campus.
The sidewalks will be installed on the east side of Engel Road between 15th Street and Crescent Road and on the north side of 11th West Campus Road and West Campus Road and Missouri Street.
The commission also voted to require property owners in the 1100 block of Mississippi and Indiana streets and the 1200 block of Oread Ave. to repair or reconstruct 4,410 square feet of hazardous sidewalks in that area.
This will be one of the few times that the commission has enforced its authority to require property owners to make sidewalk repairs.
Affected property owners first will be notified of a discussion concerning sidewalk regulations scheduled for the Oct. 16 commission meeting. They will then have to repair their sidewalls or city crews will do the work with the full cost assessed to the
property, owners, according to City Manager Buford Watson.
"One of the streets I get the most complaints about is Mississippi," Watson said. "A person who drives an automobile there can not see the bad sidewalks."
Bushes, trees and other foliage blocking the sidewalks also will have to be cut back
"It's like a tunnel in some places," Commissioner Jack Rose said.
In other business, the commission:
- Awarded a contract to drill a new water well at the municipal water plant to Lane Western Co., for $14,375 plus $38 a lineal foot for drilling below 50 feet.
- -Scheduled 10 a.m. Oct. 15 as the date to receive bids for 11 new vehicles for the T-shirt.
- Authorized installation of eight street lights at intersections in the Deerfield School Suburb
- Deferred action on new sanitary landfill rates.
- Declared Oct. 13 as Animal Welfare Day.
SenEx grouped the proposed changes into three categories: actions to be taken by the chancellor before Nov. 1, actions to be taken by the University Senate or Council before May 15, 1974, and actions that couldn't be resolved by University governance alone. Proposed actions to be taken by the chancellor were:
- Reaffirmation of the University's basic commitment to the tenure system.
- Assurance that financial exigency, under which tenured faculty members can be dismissed, is not budgetary convenience and that adequate cause for removal of a student may not be due to incompetence or substantial, manifest and willful neglect of duty or grave misconduct.
- Expression of the view that the tenure situation isn't one of crisis proportions, although there are new pressures affecting the awarding of tenure.
-Reaffirmation of the three basic tenets of temure as teaching, scholarship and activity.
—Guarantees that systematic and representative student evaluation must be included among the teaching assessments of teaching effectiveness and that each dean report to the chancellor as to how compliance with this directive is to be assured.
—Ordering the vice chancellor fo. academic affairs to transmit to every faculty member the notification of when the faculty member must receive notification of termination and that failure to receive such notification would result in automatic attainment of faculty status.
—Instruction of the University Committee on Promotions and Tenure (UCPT) to "check back" with schools or departments when the committee acts contrary to the school or department's recommendation in awarding tenure.
The law provides for a runoff election between the two top finishers when no candidate gets a majority of the votes. Massell finished second with only 40 percent of the vote.
With all of the precincts reporting last night, Jackson had 47 per cent of the vote.
But Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's vice mayor and the first black to seek the mayor's post in Atlanta, runs a runoff election. Oct. 16 against incumbent
A black candidate for mayor of Atlanta swept to a first place finish.
The Cost of Living Council approved
price hikes on soap, paper products and tires. The increases become effective Oct. 8. Retailers are allowed to pass such purchases without a penalty.
The increases were granted yesterday to manufacturers who had made formal requests for the price hikes and had given the 30-day advance notice. The department is now reviewing its policies.
Chile's junta fumed over a report saying 2,800 people have been killed.
The report appeared in Newsweek magazine and led the junta to describe Newsweek correspondent John Barnes and other unnamed newsmen as
According to the junta, 284 persons have been killed and 19 persons executed since the Sept. 11 coup against Salvador Allende.
Hitchhiker killed a highway patrolman, then was shot to death by Topeka police.
The dead trooper was identified as Jim Thornton, who operated out of the patrol's Division 1 headquarters.
The man, slain in the police chase through Topeka, is believed to be Edward E. Mitchell, who was wanted for murder in Nia. Y, N.
Heath ordered British ships to clear
disputed fishing waters around Iceland.
Prime Minister Edward Heath announced Britain's decision to break off a coverod over c渔 fish limits 12 hours before a deadline set by the Reykjavik government for the withdrawal of three Royal Navy frigates and three vessels had threatened a diplomatic break unless the British vessels pulled out.
In another part of the Russian capital, uniformed police overwhelmed 10 Jewish demonstrators with a shouting, charging charge and arrested the three men. They were detained in the capital.
were marred by dispute over Soviet Jews
The talks at the top were between U.S. Treasury Secretary George P. Schultz and Premier Alexei N. Kosygin's nixor to Moscow was the first such meeting in 50 years.
Talk on U.S.-Soviet economic relations were marred by dispute over Soviet Jews
Bill to authorize foreign economic aid of $1.2 billion was passed by the Senate.
Bill to authorize foreign economic aid
A 54-42 vote on final passage sent the bill to a conference with the House, which included $8 billion in economic aid in a combined $2.8-billion loan.
The Senate bill includes $276 million, $256 million less than President Nixon's budget request, for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance in Iraq.
New federal agency was formed to fight mental illness, drug abuse and alcoholism
Caspar W. Weinberger, secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, named Dr. Roger O. Egschlag, former dearest of the School of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"Within this agency there will be three coequial institutes, a National Institute on Drug Abuse, a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and the National Institute on Marijuana."
Proposed actions to be taken by the University Senate or Council were:
- Consideration of the establishment of area committees to make additional recommendations at a level between the deans and UCPT.
- —Initiation of a further study of the desir establishment of a tenure quota, although FRPR, SenEx and the four委员会 considered quotas undesirable.
- Proposals for systems of regular review of tenured faculty members.
—Consideration of the appropriate composition of UCPT.
-Determination of whether the three criteria of teaching, service and scholarship should be differently weighted for different schools and departments.
Actions that couldn't be taken by KU governing bodies alone were:
- Establishment of a bargaining system for contractual agreement on the extent of payment.
Senex also questioned the desirability of an additional review level, such as area committees, and also didn't support area committees being composed along the lines of the area committees in the Graduate School.
-Formulation of a University policy for non-tuition system appointments for persons not expected to be primarily engaged in both teaching and scholarship.
SenEx proposed continuation of the seven-year probationary period. The Committee on the Impact of Tenure is recommended lengthening it to nine years.
Establishment of a University policy on early retirements.
SenX2 disagreed with FRP8 and the four committees on only a few issues.
Both the Committee on Tenure Policy and the Committee on Structure and Decision Making had recommended area committees of that composition.
"Hey, kid," the photographer yelled. You wanna ride through the water right over her! "Okay, I'm ready."
ABILENE -The kid was patient, you had to say that for him. He rode his bicycle through two feet of water on Buckeye Street before the photographer spotmed him.
The kid obligingly splashed through the water at its deepest point on the street and flashed a smile that was winningly professional for someone younger than 10.
Abilene Floods Bring Carnival Atmosphere
Please, the photographer walked farther down the street. He had a lot to do. Photographing Abiene's newest tourist district—some minor flooding—too time.
IN NEIGHBOURING Saline County, Sonny
extension director estimated that 28.000
residents in the city would be
The flooding in Abilleme was only a small portion of extensive flooding in north central Kansas last week. Floods damaged Jackson County, which includes Abilleme.
The flooding in Abilene, what there was of it, struck the town last Saturday morning. The swollen Smoky Hill River, which already had flooded nearby Solomon two days earlier, flowed over its banks at Sand Springs, three miles west of Abilene.
The river quickly became three miles wide at Sand Springs, where the river comes closest to Abilene. The overflow spread to the south end of Buckeye Street, or K-15 highway, a major north-south artery in Abileng.
By Saturday afternoon the residents of the former cowtown were in a jovial mood. The water had creeped almost as far as the Eisenhower Museum, but it was receding and obviously wouldn't go any farther into town.
Officers from the Abilene Police Department and deputies from the Amarillo Police Department.
At one home about two blocks from the lapping water, six or seven senior citizens rocked on the screen-enclosed porch. They were enjoying the show.
The kid continued to ride his bike through the water, which was about two feet deep at its deepest point. Although by now the kid was thoroughly soaked, he was enjoying the attention he was getting. Soon, two other young bicyclists joined him.
THE TOWN was almost a carnival of activity. Truckloads of volunteers from Saline and Dickinson counties—husky farmers and their even huskier sons—dashed wherever the town depositing sandbags where it seemed appropriate to do
choreographed the endless stream of
town life, the south end of
town for a better look.
SUSPENSE FOR THE event was added by an Army helicopter from nearby Fort Riley. Taking off from and landing in the parking lot of Abilene High School, the helicopter was in the process of transporting a horse to higher ground. He gave cattle and hogs to higher ground. The helicopter also was searching for stranded persons.
The Auemans were impressed. The helicopter's pilot displayed little concern for his personal safety, often swooping uncomfortably close to telephone wires. But he was in a hurry and was an experienced pilot.
About 4 p.m. Saturday it began to rain heavily, adding to the suspense. Would the
Chuck Potter
plot be forced to land until the rain ended? Would someone be left stranded in the
It was all delicciously exciting. The citizens of Abilene, instead of grimly approaching the problem as it were a major force in the city, perfectly pitched in and helped each other out.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER, who had waited in vain at the parking lot for more than an hour hoping for a helicopter ride, finally went back to his newspaper office. The pilot had told him that he couldn't transport someone who wasn't in danger or in need of aid.
The boy, deciding that he had had enough water for one day, rode home. The crowds was taming him as the steep rainfall had not stopped the raindrops and I wasn't setting as much attention as earlier.
The sandbags were in place. All that was left to do was to wait to see whether the water level had risen.
It didn't. By last night most of the water was gone, having either receded, evaporated or soaked into the ground. Most of the sandbags had been picked up and put
Ablene—former cottown, one-time
town par execlession; two sheower and tourist
town par execlession;