University tenure rates declining, still higher than national average

Rachel Wallen/Old Gold & BlackWake Forest was a different place when Allan Louden began teaching in 1977.

Louden, the chair of the communication department at the university, described a Wake Forest full of very young faculty, with few people tenured.

As the years went on, more of these young faculty earned tenure, and by the mid-90s almost two-thirds of faculty at the university were tenured.

“We were trying to become a national university,” Louden said. “It also probably has something to do with when they started raising tuition — they could afford new hires. These things have reasons at the time which have consequences later.”

In 2014, 52 percent of all faculty were tenured, an 17.5 percent…