A Tenure Decision That Went Horribly Wrong
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Amy Bishop, a tenure track faculty member of the Biology Department at the University of Alabama-Huntsville shot and killed three faculty members and wounded three others after learning that her appeal of a negative tenure decision was denied. While this incident doesn’t typify the response of faculty members who are denied tenure (subsequent reports suggest that she previously accidentally shot and killed her brother 20 years ago), it illustrates how high the stakes are or (may be perceived) by those aspiring to successful academic careers.
Based my own experiences, being denied tenure is emotionally debilitating—mostly because of the public humiliation and stigma associated with it. Despite what your friends, loved ones or fellow faculty members say to you to ease the pain, being denied tenure suggests that you weren’t scientifically astute or “smart enough” to be guaranteed a job for life. It doesn’t matter whether or not the decision was fair or that there may have been extenuating personal or political circumstances, the bottom line is that you had your shot (no pun intended)and you simply didn’t have the right stuff to gain membership into the elite club populated by “outstanding scientists.” Put simply, your failure to win tenure has earned you the label of being a “failed scientist.” While nobody will ever utter those words, I can assure you, based on my own experiences that they think it no matter how successful you ultimately may become.
If I sound bitter...well....I am; but not for the reasons that you may suspect (being denied tenure was probably best career move that I was ever forced to make). While being denied tenure at institutions like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia or other elite universities doesn’t mean that you cannot have a successful academic career at lesser institutions, being denied tenure the University of Miami School of Medicine (or the University of Alabama-Huntsville for that matter) almost always means that your academic career is over. This means that after chasing an academic career for most of your professional life, you can longer do what you were trained to do and you must now do something else with your life Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, the vast majority of graduate students and postdocs that I have talked with over the past 15 years have given little thought to what that something else may be.
But, don’t be too hard yourself because you have no idea what you next career move may be after the academic career route path is no longer viable. The blame for this conundrum falls squarely on shoulders of the faculty members (mostly tenured) who train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for careers in the life sciences. Despite the fact that only 10 percent of PhD-trained life scientists land tenure track positions after completing their training, graduate programs continue to exclusively focus on academic careers for their graduates and trainees. While I believe that this practice is ill-advised and clearly flies in the face of supply side economics, the steadfast refusal of life sciences graduate programs to develop alternative career tracts within their training programs to accommodate the career needs of a majority of their graduates is especially egregious and odious.
It is not difficult to understand why many tenured faculty members don’t give much thought about future employment prospects for their graduate students and postdocs. After all, they already have jobs that are guaranteed for life and it stands to reason that the careers and employment opportunities for others are not high on their priority lists. Like it or not, when it comes to employment opportunities and career choices, most graduate students and postdocs are on their own!
It is extremely tragic that three people lost their lives and several others were wounded by a deeply troubled and misguided former tenure track faculty member. It won’t be surprising if certain faculty members dismiss the incident and attribute its horrific nature to a seriously disturbed and deranged person. After all, who in their right mind would do such an awful thing? However, I am certain that the humiliation, outrage and psychological pain experienced by Bishop are fairly common among individual who are denied tenure. Rather than turn her rage inward, she decided to take it out on the people who she thought had destroyed her life. Maybe this incident will induce graduate programs to consider implementing career development programs that showcase alternate careers beyond the traditional tenure track career path.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!
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Cliff Mintz, 