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<p>As much as I love the WSJ, I believe that in this particular article, their prescription does not match the diagnosis. If the problem, according to the WSJ, is that tenure encourages the production of (ostensibly) excessive research at the expense of teaching, then the most appropriate solution is to then shift tenure decisions in favor of teaching quality and less towards research. And indeed some schools - even top research universities such as Berkeley - will grant tenure to lecturers who are judged largely by their teaching contributions. </p>
<p>As I mentioned in my last post, I think the real problem is not with professors, either pre- or post-tenure, spending too much time on research in lieu of teaching, but rather with tenured professors who basically do little of either, but rather exploit their tenured status as a sinecure that pays a guaranteed annuity.</p>