Tenure is as valued at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as it is at traditionally White institutions (TWIs). Given the current political and economic climate, however, faculty at HBCUs may ultimately be in greater danger of losing their tenure privileges than scholars at other institutions.

The main factor threatening tenure at HBCUs is money. Tenured faculty is a big ticket item on any institutional budget. For HBCUs that are financially strapped, the number of tenure appointments that can be granted is sometimes limited by cost. This explains, in part, why HBCUs have a higher proportion of part-time and non-tenured faculty than do other institutions.

"With the economic constraints, one of the primary targets is tenured faculty and tenured faculty positions," says Jonathan Alger, spokesperson for the American Association of University Professors. "People say how do we cut costs? Non-tenure track positions are often the answer."

Alger views the increasing financial pressure on HBCUs as a direct threat to tenure at these institutions, particularly at the public HBCUs.

"In many states, HBCUs have always been tinder funded, relative to other institutions," he says. "So when budget cuts are necessary, the state legislators look at [which] institutions are not performing up to national standards and the temptation is to go after HBCUs because their programs may not be [perceived] as prestigious or [as] competitive as other institutions. UDC [University of the District of Columbia] is a prime example of that."

According to Sam Carcione, president of the UDC Faculty Association, the university's tenure policy is nominal. Instead, UDC faculty are protected by a "just cause" clause in their employment contracts. Unfortunately, that clause had little affect on sparing jobs in the current fiscal crisis at UDC.

"People have a misconception of what tenure gives you," Carcione says. "It gives you the right to job security except if they can show just cause for removing you. But all that goes out the window in a financial exigency situation....