Thanks to professor John Jeffries Martin for articulating what many of us knew all along - that the academic rank of associate professor is redundant and should be abolished (Commentary, Bulletin, March 2003).

While probationary untenured status is undoubtedly justified, there is no justification for the existence of two levels of tenure. In each case promotion requires significant input from many faculty members. The multi-stage structure of promotion committees (department, faculty and senate level), preparation and reviewing promotional dossiers, requesting and writing recommendation letters all takes time and energy from many busy and highly productive people.

Furthermore, in those cases in which the hierarchies have some justification, they exhibit pyramidal structure - the higher the rank, the less numerous its members. In churches there are fewer bishops than priests, in armies fewer generals than other officers. But curiously, in academia this pyramidal structure has become inverted with most departments having a majority of full professors. Thus, those who are not promoted to the full rank during the normal time frame often experience the stigma of inferiority.

Also, in historically justifiable hierarchies the functions and duties of different ranks differ. In academia they do not. All professors have, in essence, the same professional and teaching responsibilities and their seniority can be duly accounted through a system of annual salary reviews.

The associate professor rank is an archaic oddity with no real function. It should be abolished through an automatic default promotion of all tenured associate professors to the full professor rank. This can be done through decisive action by university senates.

Alexander A. Berezin
Engineering Physics, McMaster University