Funny (political, religious) pictures

Thank God. That's one of many things that needs to be done to fix education.
Tenure is kind of a complicated issue. I'll say up front that I lean towards doing away with it. That said, at the university level (which is what I can speak to), tenure does serve a purpose in that it allows academic freedom both to teach and to conduct scholarly work as one sees fit. There is peer (and administrative) review in determining if that teaching and scholarly work is worthy of tenure (and promotion), but once achieved, it should allow a professor to tackle controversial issues or crazy-sounding theories, advocate for change within their own university, and generally be outspoken as they like without concern for their jobs. Part of me thinks that we have protections for wrongful firing, but part of me also realizes that it is hard enough to prove someone was wrongfully fired for their race, gender, handicap, etc. let alone for their outspokenness or the "wrongness" of their research interests. So at the university level, at least, we have a conundrum. If we want to push the boundaries in art, literature, and science, then we need to have some protection from the consequences of appearing to pursue a crazy idea for a while. But then there is all the possible bad stuff that comes with becoming nearly untouchable, like becoming lazy, spoiled ivory-tower academics. Maybe it is a matter of tenure needing to be rarer, or less broadly applied, or with a harsher review process. I haven't figured out the right solution, but I do know that as long as tenure is a viable option at my university, I will pursue it.

Of course, that barely even touches tenure below the university level...
 
Yeah... that's basically my thoughts on it too. Tenure is needed at the collegiate level because it lets academics be academic and tackle controversial stuff without worrying that they'll be fired for trying to push the boundaries... and considering most colleges are simply doing away with tenured positions and making all class jobs be done by "assistant professors" that can be fired on the spot, it's something we need to have a serious discussion about. Right now we have schools full of assistant professors that basically rubber stamp kids to keep their jobs and that's doing no one any favors.

But fuck tenure below the college level.
 

Dave

Staff member
Posts with name calling removed and emails sent. I realize that this is a contentious issue, but come on.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Oh shoot you guys, Gas Bandit with the original content in the hizzy. Ok, it's more "funny audio" than picture but we don't have a thread for that.

 

GasBandit

Staff member
Sharing my Mark Steyn impersonation with my coworkers has turned out to be a dud. Surprisingly for people in the radio business in Texas, none of them know who Mark Steyn is >_<
 
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