55 - To Thine Own Self Be True

Summary

Tenured professors have a great deal of power over the promotion and tenure prospects for assistant professors that are on a tenure track but not yet tenured. The sad fact of the matter is that tenured professors can cause assistant professors to be denied tenure, based on the slightest of whims even in the face of adequate, or even better than adequate, performance on the part of the assistant professors. If an assistant professor angers a tenured professor, it is at a very real risk of eventually having to leave the university. Any assistant professor that has kept even one ear open has heard relevant horror stories, and consequently there is a strong perception of pressure to get along well with everyone. And yet, might there be situations where ethical considerations come into play that may put pressure on an assistant professor to take the risk of offending tenured professors?

Early in my career I encountered a situation of this type. I was a new assistant professor (one tenured professor kiddingly referred to me as “the new kid on the block”), and I naturally desired to get along well with everyone. As luck would have it, I arrived just in time for an external evaluation of the department, which comprised four areas: clinical psychology, industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, developmental psychology, and applied-experimental (A-E) psychology (please do not ask me what this last one means!). As a social psychologist that did not fit well into one of the first three areas, I was assigned to the A-E area. The results of the general evaluation were predictable. The clinical psychology area was deemed to be one of the best in the country, the I-O area also received rave reviews, the developmental area received some sympathy based on the excellence of its individual members in the face of there not being enough of them, whereas the A-E area was criticized in no uncertain manner. Not surprisingly, the negative evaluation of the A-E area was not received well by the members of that area (except for me; I agreed with the review), and the general consensus was to write a protest letter.