Scrapping tenure would raise costs.

Proposals to limit or abolish academic tenure could drive up the cost of going to college. Tenure acts as a brake on faculty salaries, which are lower than the average pay of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, according to Matthew W. Finkin, a University of Illinois law professor and author of The Case for Tenure. "Institutions would have to pay higher salaries in return for the privilege to dismiss faculty more freely."

Tenure took root 80 years ago in reaction to attempts by college trustees, administrators, and state legislators to stifle what professors taught in the classroom. Under a system refined over the years, a faculty member who meets a school's requirements for teaching and scholarship after a probationary period as long as seven years is guaranteed continued employment.

Now offered at nearly all private and public universities to full-time faculty members, tenure has come under attack by neo-conservative writers and some politics, who say it encourages...

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