Happy news. I received tenure in my position as Associate Professor of English at Seton Hill University this week.

I'm grateful. To mark the occasion, soon I'll be writing letters to the important teachers I've had in my life, just to share the good news and to let them know how much they really made a difference. I'm joyful, but also almost too busy to celebrate. I have to finish up a conference paper I'll be delivering next week at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, in addition to grading papers so I can submit midterm grades to the registrar before I leave. Oh, and there's the search committee dossiers I have to read before I can go to that conference. And the campus litzine editorial meetings I need to attend, as well, so the magazine will be out on time. And then more papers to collect. And then....

Ah, tenure.

I'm no less busy than I've always been. But it's an exciting achievement. There are a lot of myths attached to tenure -- mostly that it provides "lifetime job guarantee" (which it doesn't -- nationally, 2% of all tenured faculty are dismissed each year) -- or that it means a faculty member can kick back and rest on his laurels (which they don't, and can't since there are future reviews, evaluations for promotion to "full" professor, and more ... stats say that tenured faculty work an average of 52 hours a week!). But one thing that it signifies, which I hope is not a myth, is the security of academic freedom. As a creative writer, one who works in the taboo-breaking realms of horror fiction, that means a lot to me. (Not that I intend to suddenly start writing satanic bible study manuals featuring nude torture illustrations or anything like that -- I realize, naturally, that with tenure comes the responsibility for representing my college, my field, my colleagues, my home, my students, my future... -- but when I see articles reporting how professors are being fired for inane things like using the "f-word" in class, I cherish the academic freedom of tenure all the more.)

I don't have a lot to say here about achieving tenure (other than "whew!" and "now what?" and "hey, is there any more champagne in the fridge?"). But I am trying to take the time to think deeply about what tenure really means, to both myself and to others, because I have never really thought of tenure as the "brass ring" of my academic life (and, frankly, I rarely trust anyone who does... the autonomy granted by tenure is simply a tool enabling one to achieve higher aims). So I'm reading a lot. Here are some excellent sources I've come across.

• "The Truth about Tenure in Higher Education" from the NEA
  
• The Tenure Trek from Continuum Magazine
  
• The AAUP on Academic Freedom and Tenure
  
• The Economics of the Tenure System by Jeffrey A. Miron
  
• Michael Berube's analysis of the politics behind attacks on academic freedom
  
• Wikipedia entry on "Academic Freedom"
  
• The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship
  
• Protecting College Freedom
  
• Humbly, older pedablogue entries on tenure
  

Whew. Now what? Ah yes, to the fridge!

You can ping this entry by using .