Attitudes of faculty members at Florida's community colleges regarding tenure/continuing contract

Tenure has long been a debated issue. Does tenure protect academic freedom or does it protect the incompetent? Declining enrollments, increasing tuition, plus curriculum changes have caused the issue of tenure to be scrutinized. The purpose of this study was to survey the attitudes of faculty members at Florida's community colleges regarding tenure/continuing contract related to age, gender, rank, years of employment and tenure/continuing contract status. A review of related literature includes an introduction to the tenure issue and history of tenure. Relative research and the pros and cons of tenure are also presented. Finally, the status of tenure in Florida is summarized. Eight hundred and seventy-nine faculty members composing a stratified random sample from 21 of Florida's 28 community colleges were asked to complete and return a Likert scaled survey. Six hundred and seventy surveys were returned, comprising a 76 percent response rate. Survey results were analyzed using five separate one-way analyses of variance, for the measuring of attitude as related to age, gender, rank, years of employment, and tenure/continuing contract status. Of the five hypotheses tested there were significant differences in attitude regarding tenure as related to rank and tenure/continuing contract status. Results of this survey were then compared to a 1971 survey on tenure published by the Commission on Academic Tenure. Upon this comparison, it was found that in this community college survey as well as the survey conducted in 1971, faculty displayed significant differences in attitudes regarding themselves and their institutions depending on their tenure/continuing contract status. This community college survey compared to the 1971 survey produced findings indicating that a greater sense of freedom to express ideas was related to faculty rank. Community college faculty and administrators may find this study useful as they evaluate academic freedom in the classroom versus job security.