Faculty at the University of Minnesota are alarmed that fewer professors are offered tenured positions. In 2023, there were 4,823 tenured faculty members across the five University campuses, compared to 5,656 professional staff members, including lecturers. Tenure is a term that faculty and students across the campus struggle to understand.
The University Board of Regents defines tenure as “essential for safeguarding the right of free expression and for encouraging risk-taking inquiry at the frontiers of knowledge … The people of Minnesota are best served when faculty are free to teach, conduct research and provide service without fear of reprisal…”
Gopalan Nadathur, a professor in the College of Science and Engineering, chairs the Academic Freedom Protections for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Appointments task force. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding amongst faculty about what the tenure system is about, many of my colleagues don’t understand that the primary purpose of the tenure system is to protect academic freedom,” Nadathur said.
Read more at mn Daily.
