So fabulous, so Fayerweather. Only the best for the Tweedster.

spotted by Shira Borzak

Crazy cowboy philosopher and Columbia Department Chair Professor of Religion Mark Taylor came out swinging today with a New York Times opinion piece condemning his own job. The longtime gloom-and-doom prophet of educational decay made his stand against the tenure system, calling it a financial and intellectual blunder and accusing its defenders of acting purely out of self-interest.

Yet for Taylor, a man who once claimed that, “Graduate education is the Detroit of education,” these are soft words. And at least he has an alternate plan—seven-year renewable contracts for high-performing professors.

We shot Taylor a few questions about his seven-year plan. He responded: “The seven year idea is my own and I have been promoting it for more than a decade. It does not have a chance at Columbia or most other places.”

Tenure…it’s a movie!

In April, we reported that rumors both on campus and in print were suggesting that Professor Joseph Massad would soon be granted tenure. Now, everyone’s favorite tabloid/monitor-of-all-Columbia-controversies, the New York Post, reports (via HuffPo) that Massad has been granted tenure.  In an article neutrally-entitled “Columbia Tenures An Israel Basher,” columnist Jacob Gershman writes that Columbia “officially — if quietly — awarded Massad tenure earlier this month.”

Gershman then runs through the many controversies that Massad has been involved in in his time in Morningside, before adding two new plot points. First, he calls Dean of Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks a “key ally” for Massad in getting an uncommon–though not unheard of–second tenure review. Second, Gershman alleges that “President Lee Bollinger and Provost Alan Brinkley took extraordinary measures to protect the secrecy of Massad’s tenure case and guard against an outcry from Jewish alumni and donors,” including shielding the names of tenure committee members from the Board of Trustees.

University spokesman Robert Hornsby did not comment to Bwog, citing the “longstanding policy” of no comment on tenure cases. While no complaints at the faculty level have made their way back to Bwog’s ears (yet), several MEALAC students told Bwog in April that, contrary to Massad’s first tenure review, far fewer details were leaking about the tenure process, and there appear to be fewer leaks to the media as well. Whatever makes the faculty happy.

- JCD

Last May, rumors circulated that controversial Professor Joseph Massad was up for a second round of tenure review, after having been denied tenure six months earlier. Now, word is spreading both on campus and in media outlets that Massad has been granted tenure.

Massad, who is in Egypt this semester, did not respond to an email request for comment (although this CSU-Stanislaus professor claims Massad’s already heard the news), and University spokesman Robert Hornsby told Bwog, “it is our longstanding policy not to comment on any tenure case.” But even when they do comment, the news will probably go unnoticed, and the internet will move on…or not.

- JCD