Introduction
There exists in the higher education community a well-known stereotype that college professors who have achieved tenure are much less effective teachers than their nontenured counterparts. The argument is that if a professor is in no danger of losing his job, he focuses more on his research and thus becomes a worse lecturer, in many cases having a graduate student teach the class instead. While this pattern does seem apparent in many academic institutions, is it true that tenured professors are worse teachers than their nontenured colleagues? Most stereotypes are based on some sort of truth, so it stands to reason that there are some professors who have become worse teachers due to tenure, but is this true in every case? In addition, the reason for academic tenure, to allow professors to focus on research, has even become undermined in this process, leading to a frightening rumor of decreased research quality as well.