This Round of Attacks on Tenure Might Stick

Note: the Chronicle of Higher Education has updated its article to include a current version of the bill, which has changed. HNN is updating the link in this excerpt. 

A proposal in North Dakota would pilot a new vision for tenure at two public colleges — giving presidents, not faculty members, the power to sign off on performance evaluations of tenured professors.

Republican state lawmakers have introduced bills that would undo or amend tenure for years, saying that faculty members shouldn’t get lifetime job security with few strings attached. Typically, higher-ed leaders push back against attacks on tenure, saying that it is essential for protecting academic freedom. But there’s something unusual about North Dakota’s post-tenure review legislation.

A college president was involved in writing and strongly promoting the bill.

Such an origin story is distinct from historical trends, said John K. Wilson, who was a 2019-20 fellow with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. “That’s something that’s really quite radical and new and makes this particular era extraordinarily dangerous for tenure and academic freedom,” said Wilson, a scholar who studies academic freedom and tenure.

Texas and Florida are also looking at faculty tenure. With powerful Republican politicians leading the charge, these tenure bills could have a higher chance of succeeding than similar proposals in past years.

In Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has made clear that “eliminating tenure” is one of his top priorities this legislative session. In Florida, HB 999 — the higher-ed legislation whose provisions have been championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis — would also target post-tenure review, empowering each college’s board of trustees to play a role.

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The pilot program reshaping post-tenure review in North Dakota would directly affect two institutions, Dickinson State University and Bismarck State College.

Easton, Dickinson State’s leader, told a legislative committee last month that changing post-tenure review to a process managed by college presidents would ensure tenured faculty members are held accountable if they are unproductive.

Easton said the new process would also look at professors who are “non-revenue generating.” The bill proposes that tenured faculty members must bring in “more tuition or grant revenue” through teaching and research than the cost of their compensation and benefits.

“We have elevated the rights of non-productive tenured faculty members over students who pay their salaries through tuition, [and] we have elevated their rights over taxpayers who pay a significant portion of their salaries,” Easton said during his testimony. “Something needs to be done.”