I just read the sad news that Daniel Drezner, a leading scholar-blogger, was denied tenure by the University of Chicago’s political science department.

For me, the decision raises two big concerns. First, as commenters at Drezner’s blog pointed out, the mentoring system at Chicago failed. Drezner wrote that he was “genuinely surprised” by the news; that should never happen at the end of the tenure process. As a graduate student who will be in the same situation in about ten years, I’m troubled. Second, the decision may be taken — rightly or wrongly — as somehow related to Drezner’s blogging, which would be a shame since he’s arguably the most prominent untenured scholar-blogger out there. Let’s hope he finds a good job soon.