In response to your article on academic job security and tenure [R. Finn, The Scientist, Nov. 11, 1996, page 1], I feel compelled to point out that it is indeed the academic institution per se that is threatened. The anti-tenure sentiment often displayed as a necessity, based on financial consideration, is merely a change in the sentiment of a new breed of flashy, superficially educated and insignificant administrators who must control and who are now conveniently giving in to public sentiment against the protection of intellectualism and integrity from the onslaught of mediocrity and "flexibility."
The administrators of today are conceited enough to believe that they alone can run a university without meaningful and often controversial input from tenured faculty. They can run an institution, all right, but it will be closer to a penitentiary or a sweatshop. Without the security of tenure, negotiations will amount to agreements at gunpoint!
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