At Baylor University, Inside Higher Ed reports:
Senior administrators have come to believe that departmental standards were not rigorous enough and so applied new standards, which have never been shared with faculty leaders, let alone with those who submitted tenure portfolios under the old standards. Largely as a result, tenure denials at Baylor this year — which have been about 10 percent annually in recent years — shot up to 40 percent.
(Via Instapundit.)
Setting aside the unfairness of this, Baylor is shooting themselves in the foot here. It really can hurt recruiting if prospective hires worry that they won’t be treated fairly. I can think of one major institution in particular (not mine, in case you’re wondering) that developed such a bad reputation that it was unable to hire anyone that would meet their standards for tenure.
Internet Scofflaw 