I'm a post-doc at a major west-coast university. I have attended three universities, all top 10 ranked, during degree work in Canada, U.S., and Japan. I will start applying for tenure track positions in the next year or so. So having established my credentials (by/. standards) what makes it easy for me to laugh?
What was making me laugh is that tenure is the exact opposite of what the poster was saying. Tenure is absolute job security so that you can speak your mind, even if what you are saying is contraversial. The freedom to speak without fear of reprisal is the cornerstone of academic freedom and the principal is buttressed by tenure. Now what one does in the 5-8 years of assistant professorships while earning tenure is something completely different. Those are the most pressure filled years of academic life. Ones appointment is not quite at pleasure, but a denial of tenure when the vote comes up means that you are job hunting with at least one very visible failure on the ol' C.V.
I would not debate the proposition that the time at junior rank is the most conformist of an academic's career. After that you can piss off who you want (including the public) because your job does not depend on grant money, or the approval of anyone else.
So why were you so offended AC? HIBT (have I been trolled)?
Scientists are as human as the rest of us and have pressures like job security, tenure, avoidance of boat-rocking and peer pressure driving them.
Congratulations, you have just demonstrated your ignorance of the entire academic system. Tenure as a pressure?
Did you even attend a university?
You have done the entire free world a great
service, and corrected a great injustice by
denying a cowardly anonymous coward the lamest
of first posts. You should be as proud of yourself, as we are of you.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a post-doc at a major west-coast university. I have attended three universities, all top 10 ranked, during degree work in Canada, U.S., and Japan. I will start applying for tenure track positions in the next year or so. So having established my credentials (by /. standards) what makes it easy for me to laugh?
What was making me laugh is that tenure is the exact opposite of what the poster was saying. Tenure is absolute job security so that you can speak your mind, even if what you are saying is contraversial. The freedom to speak without fear of reprisal is the cornerstone of academic freedom and the principal is buttressed by tenure.
Now what one does in the 5-8 years of assistant professorships while earning tenure is something completely different. Those are the most pressure filled years of academic life. Ones appointment is not quite at pleasure, but a denial of tenure when the vote comes up means that you are job hunting with at least one very visible failure on the ol' C.V.
I would not debate the proposition that the time at junior rank is the most conformist of an academic's career. After that you can piss off who you want (including the public) because your job does not depend on grant money, or the approval of anyone else.
So why were you so offended AC? HIBT (have I been trolled)?
Scientists are as human as the rest of us and have pressures like job security, tenure, avoidance of boat-rocking and peer pressure driving them. Congratulations, you have just demonstrated your ignorance of the entire academic system. Tenure as a pressure? Did you even attend a university?
You have done the entire free world a great service, and corrected a great injustice by denying a cowardly anonymous coward the lamest of first posts. You should be as proud of yourself, as we are of you.