This article examines the promise of critical education in the contemporary era. It asks whether careerist or corporatist training models of university education are premised on the untenable assumption that educational neutrality is possible. It suggests that we reaffirm the role of the university as an autonomous, democratic, learning community and begin to see the need for a critical citizenship model of “higher” education. A central part of this equation is the need to reconceptualize tenure, not simply as a form of autonomy from external constraint, but, as a fiduciary obligation to democratic principles and communities.