Georgia university system becomes tenured

In a direct challenge to the sacred tradition of tenure, Georgia’s public university system will now let its college administrations dismiss a full professor with little or no faculty input.

The Board of Regents on Wednesday approved the new policy, which is the only one of its kind in the country, according to the American Association of University Teachers. The move is criticized by many professors, politicians and academic freedom advocates as a threat to tenure, which aims to protect professors from dismissal without cause, allowing them to develop thoughts or ideas that may be unpopular.

“Georgia is a huge outlier now, because that’s the whole point of tenure: it includes due process protections,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the faculty association, who is censorship threat the university system. “There should now be a new word for it in Georgia, because warrant won’t mean warrant there. “

The board, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, maintained that the policy change will simplify the process of removing faculty members who do not adequately contribute to a university, and the board 19-member board unanimously approved the new measure on Wednesday. In the fall of 2020, there was more than 5,800 full professor in the whole Georgian university system.

“Our intention with these policy changes is to promote faculty development and accountability as well as align them with our mission of student success,” Erin Hames, Board Member, noted Tuesday.

Previously, the dismissal process for full professors included a process of peer review with other professors. Now, professors at 25 of its 26 public universities can be dismissed after failing two consecutive annual exams. If a professor also fails to complete an improvement plan after exams, that alone would justify being fired. The new policy also included an additional criterion – student success – in assessing the performance of a full professor.

The New policy is the result of months of back and forth between faculty and the Board of Regents, the governing body of the state university system, since announcement last year that he would establish a working group to review the post-tenure review process.

In a report released by the task force in June, the group cited several shortcomings in the existing process, including time issues, onerous documentation and that “very few underperforming faculty members are identified and corrected.”

The report also indicated that there was a “need for accountability” with the incumbency process and that, in its form at the time, the Board of Regents was having difficulty having “oversight”.

Last month, the council released a draft policy which included a clause stating that a full professor could be dismissed for “other than just cause” reasons, which raised concerns before his final policy was approved.

While this language is no longer part of approved policy, critics remain concerned that the changes could crush the academic freedom of faculty who publish research or speak in ways that go against beliefs. from the board of directors or the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.

“The voice of the faculty is now less and less heard,” said Matthew Boedy, full associate professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, a public university, and chair of the Georgia Conference of the ‘Association of University Teachers.

He sees the decision, he said, as a “deep ideological attack on higher education,” adding: “Everyone involved in higher education will recognize the title that tenure is dead in Georgia today.

Others fear the new changes will affect the state’s ability to recruit and retain faculty and students at its public universities, including Georgia Tech, one of the nation’s top public research institutions.

“People won’t want to go to a place where something like this has happened,” Dr Mulvey said. “So students and teachers will suffer from this decision. “

As of Tuesday, more than 1,500 state professors signed a petition against the new policy. Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate, also publicly expressed her disapproval of the measure in the hours leading up to the adjournment of the meeting.

“Academic freedom guaranteed by tenure is more than a hiring gimmick,” Ms. Abrams tweeted Wednesday. “Georgia cannot compete for talent or produce innovation if we undermine our public universities.”

The move comes just as state leaders are being pushed back by some faculty members over a ban on mask warrants in academic institutions. The council upheld the ban.

“We continue to be in sync with the governor’s expectations and requirements for state agencies during this pandemic,” said Teresa MacCartney, the acting chancellor of the university system.