Oh, tenure.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/blog/2007/02/chomsky_calls_f.html
So, to preface this, this article is in response to a hunger strike by an African-American junior faculty member at MIT (and yes, unfortunately, the race matters) who has been denied tenure via... strange circumstances, apparently, as the letter that's posted here will show. It's very intriguing, actually -- department head and his wife, another senior aculty member, conspiring against this man due to the fact that she just doesn't like him? Being denied tenure due to PMS or something... that's amazing. Tenure is pretty much oxygen to academic research -- that, and grants, too. Double on that the fact of bullying for lab space, and it's pretty much an academic throw-down. Very interesting. And... wtf, MIT?
So, to preface this, this article is in response to a hunger strike by an African-American junior faculty member at MIT (and yes, unfortunately, the race matters) who has been denied tenure via... strange circumstances, apparently, as the letter that's posted here will show. It's very intriguing, actually -- department head and his wife, another senior aculty member, conspiring against this man due to the fact that she just doesn't like him? Being denied tenure due to PMS or something... that's amazing. Tenure is pretty much oxygen to academic research -- that, and grants, too. Double on that the fact of bullying for lab space, and it's pretty much an academic throw-down. Very interesting. And... wtf, MIT?