On 2 June 2015 at 00:26, Katherine J Hepworth <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Let me explain. On the one hand, I agree with Don’s very well put points
> about the flawed nature and low quality results of pressure to publish
> approaches in design. On the other, as a tenure track staff member who
> feels relatively powerless within  my department, let alone within my
> discipline, I don’t feel it is something I can personally have an impact on.
>

I, like James Tiberius Kirk, do not believe in the no-win scenario. :-) I
certainly sympathize with the situation of pre-tenure faculty, having
memories of when I was so afflicted.  (The 3 best days of my life were: the
day I got married, the day I became a father, and the first time I politely
told my boss "No" - which happened to be exactly 2 days after receiving
notice of having been "transferred" to tenure faculty.)

It's hard to overcome the feeling that you're alone.  But, depending on
circumstance, you're not.  There are diplomatic and professional ways to
make some noise without irritating one's Powers That Be.  I'd like to think
that forums like this one can play a role in creating collectives of
academics - tenured and otherwise - who work together outside the
strictures of any single institution to bring about positive change.

I, for one, would love to participate in a group that brings forward
rational, well-thought-out proposals for change to the whole publication
system.


>
> There are also the many other factors I mentioned contributing to this
> problem. I see the erosion of trust in experts as a disruption problem. To
> continue the journalism comparison, in the 2000s many news outlets really
> made a bad situation worse by not seeing the challenges as they were and
> adequately reacting to them. But the internet was growing in ways that
> would ruin their existing operating model no matter what.
>

I see that similarly.  Thanks for pointing that out.


>
> Our operating model as academics is changing dramatically. There will be
> far less of us in 20 years. Maybe tenure won’t exist. The erosion of trust
> in experts is part of far greater social shift that we can recognize and
> try to adapt to, or ignore and make it worse for ourselves.
>

I'm not so worried about tenure as what tenure should represent.  There are
many excellent reasons to keep tenure - two of the most important being
retention of institutional expertise (there's that word again), and
providing a cushion to absorb the inherent variability of research output.
There are other reasons too.  Tenure is just one way to ensure that these
academic principles are maintained.


\V/_  /fas

*Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.*
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/


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