University of Cincinnati magazine encourages readers to submit letters. Letters submitted online may be considered for publication here and in the print edition of the magazine.
Comments on tenure
Looking fairly at both sides, Dr. Howard Tolley [JD '83] makes a cogent case for keeping tenure ["One Professor's Take on Tenure," February 2007]. However, he unnecessarily uses "adjuncts" as a foil for his argument. Adjunct faculty, either temporary or under longer contracts, should be considered as complements and supplements to tenured faculty.
In his experience, Dr. Tolley claims that adjunct faculty do not perform student oversight work. In fact, during the 1960s and 1970s at UC's Graduate Department of Community Planning, the adjunct faculty taught classes, supervised fieldwork, advised students on theses and careers, and attended department faculty meetings on a regular basis. The adjuncts, local professional planners and community organizers enriched the department with their diversity and provided energy, experience and skills for the university -- otherwise unattainable -- and in return received academic respect and token salaries to mentor and teach some first-class students.
Paul Buckwalter, MCP '73
Adjunct faculty, UC Graduate Department of Community Planning, '69-76
Tucson, Ariz.