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210 CAREER ADVICE FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS II

Academic Careers

without Tenure

Caroline M. Kane

University of California,

Berkeley

Tenure(Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary): a status

granted after a trial period to a teacher protecting him from

summary dismissal.

U

niversities and colleges maintain a variety of

categories among faculty, and each has its

own expectations, responsibilities, privileges,

job security, and respect. Institutions of higher edu-

cation have neither the resources nor the desire to

hire all members of the faculty into positions that

might require funds in perpetuity (tenured), and yet

they have a great need for faculty in teaching,

research, and service to carry out the mission of the

institution successfully.

What are the advantages and disadvantages to the

scientist who signs on to a career without tenure at an

academic institution? Is tenure a dinosaur that should

be allowed to achieve extinction? When one is consid-

ering a position at an academic institution, what

aspects are differentially negotiable for tenured and

nontenured faculty?

There are many job titles outside the traditional

Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at academic

institutions, and they can be confusing to students, staff

and even other faculty at the same institution. Adjunct

Professor, Specialist, Research Faculty, Lecturer,

Instructor, Professor in Residence: other titles and per-

The most remarkable finding among

colleagues across institutions is that they

feel that the respect among colleagues in

one’s field off the home campus is

unrelated to a campus job title.