dagblog - Comments for "Amy Bishop, Collegiality, and Debates About Tenure"

By "not about tenure" I mean

Doctor Cleveland — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:48:34 +0000

In reply to Excellent article with some

By "not about tenure" I mean two things. First, while it does seem clear that Bishop was angry about being denied tenure, that's not the root cause of the crime. She is clearly a mentally ill person with violent tendencies, and the pretext she chooses for her violence is not the reason for her violence. Bishop would eventually have killed someone for displeasing her (and may well have done so before). What sets the criminal off is not the real issue.

Second, there is nothing particular about the system that we learn from this crime; people are using it as an excuse to express what they thought about the tenure system anyway. And there's no clear way that changing the tenure system could have prevented this crime. Bishop would eventually have lost her job, one way or another; apparently she was not producing much science. And when her career was blocked or she was afraid of her career ending, she would almost certainly have resorted to violence. Abolishing tenure wouldn't have prevented the murders, and neither would have making the tenure process less stressful.

As for Bishop's invention, apparently UAH was going to be very fair about sharing revenue with her from that, though I've now seen reports saying that the invention might not be all it's cracked up to be. (Allegedly it's an expensive replacement for a cheaper system that most biologists are happy with.) UAH was fair to her. And as for keeping her on for five (actually seven) years: they gave her every chance. They let her have the full amount of time they could give her to make tenure, and the usual year after rejection in order to find a new job.

(And the fact is, Bishop had no criminal record that UAH could have known about. She was never charged in the killing of her brother or in the pipe bombing, and the one assault conviction got cleared from the books after six months' good behavior.)

Excellent article with some

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:48:50 +0000

In reply to Amy Bishop, Collegiality, and Debates About Tenure

Excellent article with some valid points however, I am still confused over the the writer’s claims that talks of "tenure" had little to do with Bishop's actions. What would set her off on a murderous rampage? If he is referring to rumors of UAH possibly owning rights to her invention, than I could understand, but there is no mention of that point whatsoever. Clearly, there was a meeting regarding something and her actions simply cannot be attributed to pure rage.

This is a puzzle that has yet to be solved and I do not understand why a reputable higher learning institution would keep someone on staff for more than five years if they did not intend to grant tenure to begin with...it is absolutely puzzling.

On another note, I am also dismayed over UAH handling of their colleagues’ memories. Move on from the incident but do not forget their names or contributions to the school. In order to heal and move forward, there must be sufficient time for mourning and I see little of that reflected on the President’s page at their website. His dismal efforts are nothing more than a PR stunt to sweep it out of memory as if nothing occurred nearly two weeks ago.