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Offering tenure presents concerns

Re: Weekend talks planned at VIU, March 19.

To the Editor,

Re: Weekend talks planned at VIU, March 19.

I understand from reading your paper that the standoff between the faculty and Vancouver Island University administration is not over money.

I guess that the main stumbling block is job security.

The basic problem from the administration point of view with giving instructors some form of tenure is that it will be abused. Some people, on getting tenure, will do the minimum work that they can.

Firing a teacher for cause is difficult. So I suggest a compromise settlement.

The administration should be allowed to put a teacher on probation for a year and then, at their discretion, be able to fire that person.

To avoid a ‘use it or lose it’ attitude by the administration, any unused firings could be carried over. Maybe it could be a 50-per cent holdover.

Greg Blundell

Nanaimo