On Tue, Jun 25, 2019 at 6:02 PM Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Richard Barnes <rlb@xxxxxx> wrote:
>> Ted Hardie <ted.ietf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > If others agree, the question
>> becomes how to address it. One option > raised by Sean Turner in the
>> context of IASA2 discussions was making > this an employee position
>> whose term is not limited; there are others > as well.
>>
>> I also wondered whether an employee / unlimited term would be better.
>> I think that we need to think about this a bit like a tenured
>> professor.
>>
> Echoing my question from the other thead: Why do you think that? What
> properties are you trying to achieve with that arrangement?
Tenured professors could historically never be dismissed for what they
say/researched/etc. That's imprecise, and I looked around for a better
definition, but it varies quite a lot by country, and has mutated a lot in
the last twenty years. (Two of my three parents were tenured professors)
Being tenured doesn't guarantee a good teaching schedule, a high salary,
research funding, or serving on important committees! Tenured professors
still undergo evaluation, but except for pretty serious things (usually
criminal), dismissal does not result. I understood it started in the UK to
protect academics from the wrath of the monarch. There is famous story about
Isaac Asimov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov, [48][49][50].
Being tenured means that it is possible to disagree strongly about how things
should get done without fearing being dismissed. It really feels like this
is what the RSE needs. I think it is notable that Postel/etc. essentially
had this kind of security via ISI.
What I'm pushing on here is why there's a need for the RSE to have this level of protection. It seems to envision a scenario where all of the NOMCOM-appointed, nominally community-endorsed forces are arrayed against this individual, and they are the last thing preventing some bad thing from happening. Otherwise, it would make sense for some body to be able to override them, by force of dismissal if necessary. Is that what you have in mind?
--RLB
I think it is also important to recognize that the RSE isn't the RFC
Publication Centre.
--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sandelman Software Works
-= IPv6 IoT consulting =-
