Georgia’s University System Takes On Tenure

Georgia's public university system will now empower college administrators to dismiss tenured professors with little to no faculty involvement, in a direct assault to the sacred institution of tenure.



According to the American Association of University Professors, the Board of Regents adopted the new policy on Wednesday, making it the first of its sort in the country. Many professors, lawmakers, and academic freedom supporters are criticising the move as a danger to tenure, which is designed to safeguard teachers from removal without reason and allow them to develop controversial opinions or ideas.

"Georgia is now a massive outlier," Irene Mulvey, head of the teachers' group, which is threatening to condemn the university system, said. "In Georgia, there should be a new phrase for it because tenure will no longer signify tenure."

The 19-member Board of Regents unanimously adopted the new legislation on Wednesday, claiming that the policy change will ease the process of dismissing academic members who do not contribute properly to a university. In the autumn of 2020, the Georgia university system had over 5,800 tenured academic members.

In a statement to The New York Times, Lance Wallace, a spokesman for the state university system, said, "The goals of the changes are to support career development for all faculty as well as ensure accountability and continued strong performance from faculty members after they have achieved tenure." Wallace later added, "Ultimately, we all have the same goal."

Previously, tenured academics were subjected to a peer review procedure with other faculty members. Professors at 25 of the country's 26 public institutions can now be fired after failing two yearly assessments in a row. If a professor additionally fails to execute an improvement plan following the evaluations, that would be sufficient grounds for dismissal. In evaluating a tenured professor's performance, the new regulation added a new criterion: student success.

The new policy is the product of months of back-and-forth between academics and the Board of Regents, the state university system's governing body, after the latter announced last year that a working group would be formed to study the post-tenure review procedure.

The working committee found many flaws in the current approach in a study released in June, including time constraints, onerous documentation, and the fact that "relatively few low-performing faculty members are recognized and remediated."

The study also claimed that the tenure process had a "need for accountability" and that the Board of Regents had problems having "oversight" in its current structure.