<p>My friend's dad who's a tenured professor at another university was asked to take a paycut. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how this is possible? Doesn't that mean if I want to "fire" a tenured professor, I can just reduce his pay to minimum wage and force him to go?</p>
<p>I think they can be laid off if all non-tenured professors have been laid off or something like that, I read an article about something like that a while ago.</p>
<p>Companies can reduce salaries in some cases. Most HR professionals would recommend against it (it is better to lay off dead wood), but some companies opt for salary reductions. Thankfully, Michigan has not had to resort to such desperate measures. In fact, Michigan actually gave modest raises this year. Gotta love Michigan!</p>
<p>but doesnt that mean you can force a tenured professor to resign by reducing his wage to 7 dollars per hour? I mean then you are essentially firing him… then what’s the point of tenure?</p>
<p>Tenure is a contractual right not to have one’s position terminated without just cause. While tenure protects the occupant of an academic position, it does not protect against the elimination of that position. For example, a university that is under financial stress may eliminate or downsize some departments.</p>
<p>I have often found that when they say “pay cuts” for tenured professors, the Universities is actually giving them Furloughs for a few weeks. They supposedly don’t need to work for a few weeks, but have all the same teaching and research responsibilities. This is actually very common and has happened to a few members of my family who are profs.</p>
<p>That is really good that Michigan is giving some modest pay raises to professors!</p>