Hiring and Firing Professors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hiring and Firing Professors - Essay Example Moreover, the type of school is another point of consideration. A private school and a public school have different working conditions. This may include tenure and security. For private schools, teachers are less secure and are easily dismissed from service. Another cause is the tendency to do research more over teaching because research is more attractive and more interesting for it gives more pay and is counted much more in terms of professional advancement (Etzioni). Amitai Etzioni's "Confessions" gives insights on this question of student participation. According to him: "On the question of hiring, firing and promoting faculty, we favored some student participation." This is through the "fine teaching-evaluation instrument" which is a questionnaire given out to students by semester to evaluate the professor's teaching. He adds that the result must be "given to committee which passes on promotions and renewal of contracts, as a students report on teaching." The student assessment of the teaching performance "would provide some systematic information and thus might increase the reward - and maybe pressure - for good teaching, at least as seen by the students." I agree with the idea of Etzioni that students must have a part in the hiring and firing of professors but limited only on the teaching-evaluation instr... nd promoting faculty, we favored some student participation." This is through the "fine teaching-evaluation instrument" which is a questionnaire given out to students by semester to evaluate the professor's teaching. He adds that the result must be "given to committee which passes on promotions and renewal of contracts, as a students report on teaching." The student assessment of the teaching performance "would provide some systematic information and thus might increase the reward - and maybe pressure - for good teaching, at least as seen by the students." I agree with the idea of Etzioni that students must have a part in the hiring and firing of professors but limited only on the teaching-evaluation instrument, except on rare cases of grave misconduct and abuse of authority of the teacher. There are several reasons why students' participation should be limited to the questionnaire only. One is that students are "transient members of the university community and will not have to live with the consequences of their action." This refers to undergraduate students. For graduate students, the case may be a little different for they stay beyond the four or five years' stay of the undergraduates. Another reason is that "students often have a highly unrealistic idea of what 'the system' can realistically do" such as "much larger faculty staff to provide for more intimate instruction; but they are horrified at any suggestion that students should pay a still higher tuition fees" (Etzioni). In addition, "there are matters that students can have no say - for example, what political views a teacher may have or must not have when hired or retained, what he will teach specifically (as distinct from what areas will be taught), or what specific competence will be required for