As an engineering student who deals with tenured faculty all the time, I love this "article." While I totally agree with the original premise of tenure, I think there is definitely a need for accountability, especially when it comes to teaching. I've had professors promise office hours and not show up countless times, and I've had professors be extremely disrespectful toward students in class. Their egos can be so overinflated that you can't walk in the room without feeling oppressed. They refuse to own up to their mistakes, no matter how significant they may be. A student once pointed out a mistake one of my professors made on the board, and the professor said "huh," flipped back through his notes, and marched up to a student in the first row, pointing at his notes, and said, "See? I got it right in my notes." This same professor allegedly failed 40% of the class the semester I took it. I don't know if the number is accurate, but in a rare display of reason, the department took "administrative action," whatever that means, and he hasn't taught an undergraduate class since. I could go on and on about other classes with other professors, but I'll spare you the ranting.
That being said, some of my worst experiences have been with non-tenured faculty, while some of my best experiences have been with tenured faculty. Obviously there's no general rule. A researcher is teaching one of my classes this semester, and he "held his office hours" in a different room and a different building entirely than what he published on the syllabus. He didn't email us until after office hours were over, when he said that he was in a different room. He doesn't prepare for class--he quite literally reads the words on the powerpoint slides a professor used last semester, even when the words aren't coherent sentences. Half of the time, he doesn't even bother to change the dates. Just yesterday, he stumbled over what an "ADC" was, even though it was crucial to the lab we were supposed to be doing. (It was an analog to digital converter, which is a pretty critical abbreviation to know for someone teaching a lab course.) But then one tenured professor I had has basically stopped doing research to focus on teaching one section of an intro engineering course that all the freshmen take. Part of the course is a very time-intensive project that usually involves late nights in the lab, and he'll be there until he closes up shop at 10. When I took the course, he ordered us pizza a number of times, and he even gave us his home and cell phone numbers in case of any issues.
I know that the cases I've cited are all extremes, but why can't professors be just a little more willing to take that extra step? I don't need you to order pizza for me, really. It's an extremely nice touch and was very much appreciated, but how about starting with actually showing up for your own office hours? How hard can it really be?
I know we have several professors on this board, so please don't take this as a personal shot at you or your profession. I'm simply commenting on the experiences I've had with my professors. I may have had a disproportionate number of bad experiences, but quite frankly, some of what my professors do and get away with is absurd and should be entirely unacceptable.
