Bruce Benson supported a move to weaken tenure at Metro State College, a controversy that's still before the State Supreme Court five years later.
He now says he sees why tenure is necessary.
Benson was chairman of the board of trustees at Metro State when the college issued a new handbook that allowed it to lay off professors, regardless of tenure.
Tenured professors are supposed to be secure in their jobs, and they argued that in case of layoffs, part-timers should go first.
Six professors and their union sued the college, saying the handbook undermined tenure. Faculty President Hal Nees said the case is now before the state high court.
It's an issue that still rankles faculty at Metro, Nees said.
But both Nees and his predecessor at the faculty senate, Joan Laura Foster, said the oil executive eventually learned that professors have a role in governing a college that employees in a business don't have.
"He was open to learning, and he learned," said Foster, now dean of the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "Initially, he and I did a lot of battles," she said. But now, "I have tremendous respect for him."
Benson now says he understands the importance of tenure.
"If we eliminated tenure at the University of Colorado, our faculty would go somewhere else. End of story," Benson said.
imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438
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February 6, 2008
11:09 a.m.
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datboyt writes:
Professors must have the right to teach what has been deemed acceptable and academic through their own, as well as others published research. Removing tenure only introduces fear into a professors teaching and research as they may lose their job simply because they are teaching material not condoned by the private donors of the University (which makes up much of the money. A professor should always be held accountable for non-academic or inappropriate teaching and research, but if professors do not feel comfortable going against the norm or the "big business" side of higher education you simply have indoctrination and real learning can not take place. Tenure is the safeguard protecting professors’ right to academic freedom from the business side of higher education, but it is possible to fire a tenured professor so there are boundaries in place as well. Yet, as Universities tenure associate professors, most of the time they are promoting scholars that have proven themselves time and time again to meet the Universities standards of academic rigor.