The Tenure System in Engineering

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The Tenure System in EngineeringRoli VarmaUniversity of New MexicoThis proposal studies the importance of the tenure system in engineering in institutions of highereducation. The tenure system distinguishes the academy from other forms of professional work.However, the rapid reduction of tenure-track positions and the rise of part-time and non-tenuretrack positions has reduced the importance of the tenure system. Most importantly, the tenuresystem has become a controversial subject that passionately divides scholars between those whoargue for maintaining the system and those who argue for eliminating it. The proposal focuses onengineering because it makes an interesting case study of the technical system and human values.This is primarily a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 15+ subjects. Thissample includes 10-12 engineering faculty who are tenured and on tenure-track, female andminority faculty, and faculty who are in their terminal year from one public university and oneprivate university. The sample of tenured and on tenure-track faculty will be drawn randomlywhere as the sample of female and minority faculty and the faculty in their terminal year will beselected via snowball sampling method.Intellectual MeritEngineering is one of the best disciplines in which to illuminate the underlying roles of thetenure system that go beyond the traditional justification of academic freedom. Engineering, as atechnical field, is unlikely to investigate those problems that result in deep-rooted prejudice andintense emotional reaction for which tenure has been justified. Yet engineering design is adecision-making process in which technical knowledge is applied to convert resources into asocially required product. Engineering design implies some understanding of the structure ofsociety, social organizations, work environment, peoples safety, and protection of theenvironment. Furthermore, engineering deals with technologies that have profoundlytransformed society since World War II. Most importantly, engineering faculty increasinglycollaborate with industry which undermines the traditional notion of academic autonomy. Inother words, engineering is not really value neutral as proclaimed. An investigation intowhether engineering faculty involved in social and political questions relevant to the universityface challenges during the tenure process, whether the engineering faculty with industry s linkshave a competitive edge in securing tenure, and whether women and minorities face additionalhardship in tenure promotion in engineering, will show the underlying relationship betweentechnical and social systems.Broader ImpactThis is a pilot study; findings from this study will result in a full proposal to the NSF on August1, 2006. In probing the importance of tenure to academic personnel, it is likely to illuminatestructures of status and opportunity in academia. It will also show the ways in which thesupposed political neutrality of engineering is constructed despite patently social and politicalviews held by engineering faculty. It will provide data for social scientists concerned with socialequity. This project also has great potential to contribute to undergraduate teaching; the findingscan be incorporated in future teaching. It is especially important because engineering students arein great need of understanding the social and political dimensions of their own curricular anddisciplinary worlds.