This past spring our contract campaign at Wright State culminated (for the time being) in the campus-wide distribution and posting of the following two fliers:
Agreed. The faculty are central. But there is more to it than that. For example, which faculty? The most published, or the highest ranked in teaching by students? Or is it both? In both cases, bias and inflation can create misleading signals. Moreover, renewal and intellectual destabilization are central to knowledge advancement. Tenure tends to blunt that dynamic. And for every “star” faculty holding a chair, there are a hundred candidates or more that can take their place. The PhD market, and adjunct, is overflowing with talent, or potential talent, and like congressmen without term limits which blocks democratic vitality and representation, so tenure and academy culture potentially block or retard innovation and knowledge. The administrative and governance analogue is equally causal. What makes a Great university? Risk.
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Agreed. The faculty are central. But there is more to it than that. For example, which faculty? The most published, or the highest ranked in teaching by students? Or is it both? In both cases, bias and inflation can create misleading signals. Moreover, renewal and intellectual destabilization are central to knowledge advancement. Tenure tends to blunt that dynamic. And for every “star” faculty holding a chair, there are a hundred candidates or more that can take their place. The PhD market, and adjunct, is overflowing with talent, or potential talent, and like congressmen without term limits which blocks democratic vitality and representation, so tenure and academy culture potentially block or retard innovation and knowledge. The administrative and governance analogue is equally causal. What makes a Great university? Risk.