To your average Penn undergraduate, the idea of tenure evokes little more than bureaucracy, tweed and a complicated political process. And even for academic insiders, the process holds an air of secrecy.
So on Thursday night, three Penn professors attempted to shed some light on the topic. The Philomathean Society and Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, with support from the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, co-hosted a panel discussion called “Demystifying Academic Tenure.”
College sophomore Emmett Wynn, a Philomathean Society member and Benjamin Franklin Scholar, came up with the idea of holding the panel and organized it with Wharton senior Yingnan Xu, the Philomathean Society’s Second Censor.
Wynn moderated the discussion with SCUE chair and Wharton senior Scott Dzialo.
Classical studies professor Ralph Rosen, who is also the SAS associate dean for graduate studies, opened the discussion by explaining the tenure process. It begins when professors are evaluated after their third year at the university. If approved, they continue for three more years. In their sixth year, they undergo mandatory review for tenure.
Professors undergoing tenure review must submit a dossier including a number of letters from peers in the field. The professor’s dossier goes through several committees. If approved, the decision goes to the provost and then the Board of Trustees.
According to Emily Dolan, a music professor, the letters of reference lend tenure its sense of mystery. “It’s this whole discussion that happens that you don’t get to see any part of,” she said.
Dolan, who arrived at Penn in 2006, became a tenured professor only this past April. Rosen, on the other hand, has been at Penn since 1983 and a tenured professor since 1989. Classical studies professor Peter Struck came to Penn more recently, in 1999, and received tenure six years later.
Receiving tenure “is the major inflection point in an academic career,” Struck said. “With tenure, all of a sudden you have utter freedom, and I don’t know another career where that’s possible.”
Dolan agreed, saying that since receiving tenure, “the idea that I can do any project I want now is mind-blowing.”
Dzialo brought up tenure’s relevance to undergraduates. As SCUE chair, Dzialo explained, he hears students complain that many tenured professors are horrible teachers. According to Rosen, that’s an unfortunate side effect of the value placed on scholarship. Teaching doesn’t tend to trump research in Penn’s tenure process.
“A brilliant teacher whose research is just okay won’t get tenure here,” he said, but “a brilliant scholar whose teaching is mediocre will probably get tenure.”
The event’s 14 attendees included both undergraduate and graduate students. Many of them, including Wynn, expressed interest in pursuing their own careers in academia.
Wynn began thinking about tenure near the beginning of his freshman year after overhearing Rosen and Struck discuss the topic at a dinner Rosen hosted.
Tenure talk should hold a greater place in the University’s discourse, Wynn said. “Every student at a university should care about tenure, because all the nuances affect our lives in a profound way.”
