Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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When faculty have tenure, are their salaries protected? If so, what portion and in what circumstances? In the era of managed care and shrinking resources, these questions are becoming particularly important at medical schools because salaries there tend to be higher than salaries elsewhere in academia and because those salaries are more commonly dependent on outside funding. A fundamental question that will increasingly be asked is whether reductions in the salaries of tenured faculty are legally permissible. To a large extent, the answer is a matter of interpreting what each medical school has contractually obligated itself to do regarding tenure; generally, schools' tenure rules support the legal right to impose a salary reduction. ⋯ Although the main historical purpose of tenure was the protection of academic freedom, can the protection of salary be encompassed within this purpose? Usually not; the current situation is almost always one in which cost concerns, not political ones, motivate medical schools to reduce the salaries of faculty with reduced funding or practice incomes. The author concludes that although there are few precedents and many unexplored issues, it is clear that tenure was not intended to protect full salaries at most medical schools. His view is that in appropriate circumstances, reductions in the salaries of tenured faculty are legally achievable.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The effect of presentation order in clinical decision making.