To Protest Colleagues' Lack of Job Security, a Professor Quits Her Tenured Post

As a tenured associate professor of English at Yeshiva University, Gillian Steinberg had been a winner in academe’s fierce competition for secure, decent-paying jobs. For the past several years, as director of the writing program at Yeshiva's undergraduate men’s college, she had tried to lift up other writing instructors — offering them positions that, while not on the tenure track, at least were full time and on long-term contracts.  Last week, however, convinced that her efforts were about to be undone by administrators as part of a broader reorganization, Ms. Steinberg decided to walk away from her otherwise secure position.