ABSTRACT
The question of merit does touch the critical issue of the polity of academia, particularly as it pertains to what, according to some, has been the unremitting collapse of order in universities. There has always been agreement that all academic men do not have a claim on tenure, that it should be granted only to those who have demonstrated their competency to their colleagues. Academic freedom needs to be sustained, not because of a particular solicitude for the professoriate, but to insure that society will receive the full benefits of critical and independent thought and analysis from those whose task it is to provide such. It cannot be denied that those whose merit must be determined run a clear risk that their relative incompetence will be exposed. Notwithstanding the complexities of determining merit, there are some procedures that clearly come closer to estimating it than others.
