Tenure Wars

Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame has some sensible ideas about tenure for college professors ("Let's Just Get Rid of Tenure (including mine)"). He notes that instances where professors might be unjustly fired for politically unpopular views--one of the main justifications for tenure--"rarely" occur. My father--formerly the chairman of the computer science department at a mid-sized public university and therefore somone who had to deal with the hassles of unfireable bad professors on a day-to-day basis--made the same point to me a few years ago. "What could be politically controversial," he asked, "about designing integrated circuits?"

Sherman Dorn responds to Levitt's post by citing a case where people really did try to sack an economics professor for standing up to business interests--in the 1940s. I'm sure he's right, but doesn't that still qualify as "rare"?

Levitt is too dismissive in saying that someone who gets unfairly fired can just go back into the job market and find another job elsewhere. Most professors don't have the juice that comes with being a best-selling author and frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine, etc. But as with any policy, there's a basic utilitarian standard that has to be addressed here. Tenure has benefits and costs. Levitt is saying the former outweight the latter. I don't think Dorn's reply really refutes that.