Thinking out loud

Just trying to process my own weekend experience at COCAL, what I've heard about CGEU, and thoughts on the proletarianization of professional labor in general. I want to ask the question: Is it time to reassess the tenure model of academic employment, to take what is important to the life of the university intellectual - most significantly (I believe) academic freedom and job security - and adapt them to the new realities of American higher education? Is clinging to an antiquated notion of the academy - one which is currently creating a two-tiered academic workforce of tenured haves and everyone else - a viable strategy in protecting the prerogatives and professional status of faculty?

I ask because it's very clear that the nature of the academy is changing - and its changing for the most part without any input from the majority of the people who work within this particular economic sector. We seem to have three options - 1) do nothing and roll with the punches as they come, 2) fight a purely reactionary, defensive battle to recapture the golden days of the American academy, or 3) propose an alternative model which recognizes that higher education in the United States has changed and addresses the numerous inequalities that the last 30 years of educational policy have generated. Yes, that does over-simplify things, but at this point, I just want to put it out there - is the tenure model of higher education the only acceptable model?