Tenure Helps Pupils

Reprinted from the Daily Aztec, 12/10/2001

Tenure.

It is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many professors on campus depending on this classification for job security.

Perhaps it is because the process to obtain tenure can be strenuous. Professors on campus must pass a six-level review, in which committee members examine their teaching, publications and service to the campus.

It is clear through these criteria that professors' duties go beyond teaching and research. They are often expected to fulfill committee assignments, supervise programs and advise students, while teaching and publishing at the same time. Take women's studies professor Patricia Washington, who was hired in Fall 1996. Today, she is an advisor to the Afrikan Student Union and the executive advisor for Between My Sistas.

Washington has been denied tenure in the first two steps of her review process. Her presence at this university is obviously very important to the group of 40 students who protested two weeks ago about the decision. At San Diego State, it is rare to see student activism in such a strong public manner.

At the protest, many spoke about Washington's devotion to students, her love of teaching and her ability to help others. Students said that, if it weren't for her, they would have left the university years ago.

At San Diego State, where retention and diversity of students is so important, professors should be judged more on their service to the campus and relationship to students and less on how many times their name has appeared in journal bylines.

What's more important - a professor who always keeps his or her office door open to students who need to talk, or a professor who is never around because they are off doing research and writing papers?

The answer is obvious. Students get more out of their education when their professors are around. They get more out of college when they forge personal relationships with their teachers.

But, unfortunately, professors are forced to decide. Do they spend time with their students, or forgo these relationships; at least for the first few years; in order to keep their job?

On her Web site, Washington quotes a poem by Mary Radmacher-Hershey: "live with intention/walk to the edgellisten hard."

It is about time the university takes that advice and listens to its students.