[97fan]

A personal anecdote that bears on this conversation, and particularly on the conservative hand-wringing about progressivism on campus:

My sister-in-law was, until a few years ago, a tenure-track humanities professor at a public university in a red state. (This school finished middle-of-the-pack, for whatever that's worth -- personally I think it's worth very little -- in the FIRE rankings.) She's also an outspoken feminist, and she made some political comments at an on-campus event, which attracted the attention of a Republican state legislator, who was then in contact with the university's administration about the comments. Suddenly my sister-in-law's tenure application was being viewed much more harshly by the administration. Ultimately she was denied tenure. And even though a university appeals board ruled that the administration's purported rationale for denying tenure was bogus, the university president overruled the appeals board and upheld the decision.

My sister-in-law sued and got a six-figure settlement, but that amounted to a only a small fraction of the financial damage she suffered. She was unable to find another job in her field; as those of you in academia know, it can be very hard to get a job elsewhere after being denied tenure. She's had to start over career-wise, after spending about 15 years, including grad school, in this field.

[97fan]

A personal anecdote that bears on this conversation, and particularly on the conservative hand-wringing about progressivism on campus:

My sister-in-law was, until a few years ago, a tenure-track humanities professor at a public university in a red state. (This school finished middle-of-the-pack, for whatever that's worth -- personally I think it's worth very little -- in the FIRE rankings.) She's also an outspoken feminist, and she made some political comments at an on-campus event, which attracted the attention of a Republican state legislator, who was then in contact with the university's administration about the comments. Suddenly my sister-in-law's tenure application was being viewed much more harshly by the administration. Ultimately she was denied tenure. And even though a university appeals board ruled that the administration's purported rationale for denying tenure was bogus, the university president overruled the appeals board and upheld the decision.

My sister-in-law sued and got a six-figure settlement, but that amounted to a only a small fraction of the financial damage she suffered. She was unable to find another job in her field; as those of you in academia know, it can be very hard to get a job elsewhere after being denied tenure. She's had to start over career-wise, after spending about 15 years, including grad school, in this field.