I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university’s main web page you might see an article about me (I say “might” because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It’s awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it’s part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want vacuous pablum, that’s what the right-wing think tanks are for.
I don’t visit the main page much, so I wouldn’t have noticed this except that Larry Moran brought it to my attention. I should have made sure the photo accompanying the article had been properly credited, with something like “Photo courtesy of Larry the Camera Guy” across the bottom.
Unfortunately the author of the article demoted you to Assistant Professor. I hope that doesn’t mean you have to go through another tenure review. ;)
Or that I have to take a pay cut! Fortunately, I think these articles have roughly no official standing over at payroll.
Nice article — and I learned something too.
You never know, some overzealous new hire could have seen that and be processing your pay cut as we write…
PZ, apparently you went to “a natural history museum”. Nope, you went to THE Natural History Museum. Can’t these people get anything right!
I clicked “refresh” quite a few times on the UMM main page before the Dawkins/Myer article popped up. I’m not sure you’re getting your 25% time share. I blame creationists!
Be very worried if they take away your red swingline stapler.
In regards to the statement that your university might not agree with ‘everything’ you say; I am proud to know that the position of a prof is still held by those (fleetingly few, it seems at time) who are able and willing to speak both their mind and their knowledge. So many people are sated by living in the middle, on the fence, and too few are willing to say what everyone is thinking. Kudos.
Yeah, the 4 articles at random thing seems a bit broken for me. For me the upper left and lower right articles were always the same in my ~50 refresh sample. The other two articles did tend to vary from one loading to the next. I smell a conspiracy! Or something…
…I may have forgotten to put on deodorant this morning.
The guy in the suit and tie, Collin Peterson, never goes away. He’s there every time I refresh. He must be important.
Local representative. Distributor of government largesse. Actually a pretty reliable advocate for higher education.
You misspeeled ‘belief tank’. :-)
Spread the meme…
Cheers!
Nice article. Makes all the right points.
You and Dawkins “exchanged theories,” eh? Which one of yours did you give him, and which one did you get in return?
“but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom–“
And because you have tenure. I wonder how long they would abide you if you did not?
“Tenure. A gift from God or a life sentence?”
Sugarbear writes, “And because you have tenure. I wonder how long they would abide you if you did not?”
At the universities I’ve seen, graduate students are just as free as tenured professors to express views, from the outrageous to the mundane. Lecturers, too. Their fear is just that the demand for the courses they teach will lessen. As long as those courses fill a niche, universities are happy to have their cheap labor. Assistant professors are the one beknighted group. They are too busy to talk about anything that doesn’t lead to their tenure review.
I particularly like the screen shot I just got.
“University of Minnesota Morris”
“Recognized nationally for all the right reasons.”
And immediately underneath, centered, “PZ Myers exchanges theories with Richard Dawkins”!
-Rusty
PZ says,
but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom–
Sugarbear replies,
And because you have tenure. I wonder how long they would abide you if you did not?
Tenure means that you can’t be fired for your beliefs or your viewpoints. It’s how we protect academic freedom. Tenure and academic freedom are just two versions of the same thing.
Tenure does not protect you if you are incompetent.
From the article:
I didn’t realize there was such a thing as the National Zebrafish Conference. Dare I ask how many confused furries showed up?
With respect PZ, I think you failed to correct the Morris article on one (other) point…
… I thought that was your belief. :-)
(I kid ’cause I envy.)
Actually, tenure might very well protect you if you’re incompetent — as long as your chair, dean, and/or academic vp are such lazy butts that they prefer to sit around whining about how tenure protects incompetents (instead of doing their job of documenting incompetence). One of my colleagues actually bought into the notion that job security or tenure was a shield for the bad profs — at least until our dean made her a believer by building a solid case against an instructor and showing him the door. And there was much rejoicing (because we were always having to clean up the incompetent’s messes).
Unfortunately, I think you’ll find that lots of people swallow it hook, line, and sinker when some administrator shrugs his or her shoulders in abject defeat and says, “What can I do? The teacher is tenured!” Well, you could do your job… (No one said it was supposed to be easy to dismiss a teacher.)
“Tenure does not protect you if you are incompetent.”
Proving someone is incompetent is a bit like proving they are ugly.