My program could hire Tom Brokaw or Walter Cronkite (if he was still alive) to teach broadcast journalism, and they would have no vote on which broadcast news classes we offer because they aren’t PhDs with tenure. Make that make sense.
The instructors who teach the most in the Universities of Wisconsin System are currently blocked from having power. That means they have no say over how budgets are distributed, which classes are offered, which skills are taught, and who is hired or fired. That’s even though they interact with students the most, are most likely to teach skills courses, and are most likely to have industry backgrounds and ties that help students.
The power is consolidated in the hands of a few, elite tenured professors with PhDs who tend to be theorists. This needs to change. The UW needs to stop valuing degree over experience. The people with expertise in the fields offered to students are often blocked from having any voice. They also can’t be deans…