It is crucial to understand today's tenure-track workers so that colleges and universities can continue to attract and retain a large subset of them by understanding and supporting their satisfaction and success at work. In this article, the authors talk about data, leadership, and catalyzing culture change. They discuss data use in the academy…

Changes in higher education require input and support from leaders across the campus--especially the board, the president, and the faculty. In American colleges and universities, this collaboration is known as shared governance. In order to engage effectively in shared governance with the president and the faculty, board members need to understand…

Consequential governance requires critical thinking on big issues that affect the institution's success over the long term. A major issue in the academy is tenure--guaranteeing faculty members lifelong employment and academic freedom--bestowed after a probationary period of several years during which the faculty member is responsible for proving…

To understand what life on the tenure track is like, the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) conducts an annual survey of tenure-track faculty. Through surveys and in focus groups and interviews, hundreds of tenure-track faculty members tell what affects their workplace satisfaction and, ultimately, their success. The…

Beginning in 1934, representatives of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges (AAC) met and drafted the definitive statement on academic freedom and tenure. Like the U.S. Constitution, the 1940 "Statement on Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure" was a commendable, if deficient, product…

This report, one in a series about the priorities of the professoriate, presents a narrative summary of information received from 280 higher education institutions that responded to an American Association for Higher Education survey on tenure policies, practices, and trends. Provosts were asked to indicate whether their campuses had considered or…

The New Pathways Project was initiated by the American Association for Higher Education in 1995 to reframe the debate about tenure within a broader examination of academic careers. Project goals include expanding choice in academic employment, balancing individual rights and responsibilities, and strengthening community. Project activities,…