iSteve commenter TG explains:

Tenure for academic faculty is no different from a lawyer making partner at a law firm. It harkens back to when the universities were basically owned or controlled by the faculty. There is nothing lazy or stupid about it.

Now the administrators have taken over, and faculty are increasingly being treated like Wal-Mart “Associates.” More and more teaching is being done by part-time faculty with no real security, and even full time faculty are increasingly soft-money on-commission and can be fired – or have their salaries cut – at will. Meanwhile central administrators are running the show, giving themselves massive pay boosts and of course THEY have permanent jobs… and can tell the mere faculty what to do, and what to think, and what is and is not allowable. Yes, faculty now have to sign diversity pledges because the central admin says so, and faculty are just employees who have to do what they are told, right?

Has getting rid of all those ‘lazy’ tenured faculty made college cheaper and more efficient? ROTFL! College is now vastly more expensive than ever, and the administrative burden continues to explode.