Why do we have so many really awful professors on college faculties? One reason is that the hiring process is completely in the hands of academic departments, usually with minimal oversight from the administration. Therefore, when leftist radicals want a collegial (i.e., like-minded) new member of the department, they are likely to get their way.
But suppose that the school’s board of trustees could say “no” to politicized candidates who would probably cause trouble for the college or university — wouldn’t that make a difference? In a new Martin Center article, Jay Schalin argues that it would. “They are,” Schalin writes, “from outside the academy and are more in touch with the sentiments of the community at large (not merely those of the insular college town). Their livelihoods do not depend on their position at the university, and they need not fear recriminations from politicized faculty and administrators. Because of their independence, they can avoid the sort of parochial groupthink that is becoming academia’s Achilles Heel.”
The trustees don’t have a lot to do and having them give final consideration to a potential faculty member would be appropriate. And knowing that their choice might be vetoed, the faculty might be more circumspect in their picks.
What should the trustees think about when they look over a candidate’s record?
Schalin answers:
Trustees’ main criterion for judging faculty candidates should not be political, but should instead focus on whether a faculty candidate’s scholarship and public statements indicate support for the university as the free marketplace of ideas. By making open inquiry the litmus test, radical activists can be kept off of (public) university faculties. (There should be a secondary test to make sure that the candidate is the sort of individual whose character is worthy of a faculty appointment.)
Trustee involvement in faculty hiring would serve the same ends as giving the Senate its role in approving presidential choices for important posts — it would bring the concept of checks and balances into higher education. It wouldn’t be a panacea, but it would probably avoid some of the worst faculty hires.