Kentucky House Bill 424, a continuous piece of legislation dedicated to regulating tenure, was passed by the general assembly via override after it was first vetoed by Governor Andy Beshear. Despite this, the Murray State Faculty Senate was already prepared to defend the policy.
Melony Shemberger, faculty regent, said the University administration a year ago encouraged the Faculty Senate to begin drafting a document relevant to such an event. Shemberger said there was no bill like this at that time, but the urgency was there as legislation like 424 to limit or abolish tenure was “gaining momentum” across the country.
As Murray State University is a public institution, laws such as HB 424 and others, like HB 4, an anti-Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity, have to be followed. HB 424 would specifically require those with tenure be able to pass performance reviews every four years.
Those who do not pass their post-tenure reviews could be subject to termination from the University.
But, Shemerberger said the revisions being made to the Faculty Handbook, in accordance with HB 424, do not weaken or threaten tenure.
“It was designed to keep intact the core values of tenure — academic freedom, due process and peer review — all the while meeting the new state requirements in HB 424,” Shemberger said. “Therefore, there is no re-evaluation of the institution of tenure; that’s not the scope of HB 424. Rather, the proposed policy focuses on ongoing performance review, meaningful opportunities for faculty development and safeguards against arbitrary job termination when performance concerns arise.”
Michael Bordieri, current secretary and president-elect of the Faculty Senate, said the policy the Senate began work on a year ago was “thoughtful and faculty-driven,” with published guidance to help.
“Our approach meets the requirements of HB 424 while emphasizing ongoing faculty development and peer review,” Bordieri said. “We engaged faculty throughout the process through Senate meetings, listening sessions, public comment periods and direct consultation with department chairs and the administration.”
Bordieri said the final proposal of the handbook revision was unanimously approved by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on Tuesday, April 22.
The final proposal and other information about post-tenure review can be found below.
https://www.murraystate.edu/about/FacultyStaff/FacultySenate/post-tenure-review.aspx
Bordieri also said there will be a vote on the proposal in the full Faculty Senate May 6 at 3:30 p.m. in the Curris Center Barkley Room. He said the meeting is public and can also be viewed via Zoom.
https://murraystate.zoom.us/j/83844364068
Shemberger said if the Senate approves the proposal, it will advance to the Provost and the president. She is confident the requirements and deadline for the University to have a performance evaluation policy for post-tenure will be met.
Shemberger and Bordieri said protecting tenure is important to universities.
“Tenure protection is not just for the faculty member; it affects our learners,” Shemberger said. “If tenure protections were not in place, then faculty would not have the academic freedom to design instruction based on new content or ideas in our field or discipline. That means our learners, our students, would not benefit.”
“As faculty at a regional public university, our commitment to protecting tenure ensures that students continue to benefit from experienced and dedicated educators who are free to explore bold ideas, deliver innovative instruction and strengthen our communities through leadership and engaged scholarship,” Bordieri said.
Ray Horton, tenured professor, shared the published guidance Bordieri referred to with the Murray State News. As well as an additional article.
American Association of University Professors (1999).
https://www.aaup.org/report/post-tenure-review-aaup-response
American Association of University Professors (1940).
Horton said he is not worried about tenure right now, but is for the future. He said as new Board of Regents members come in and new politicians are elected, the future is uncertain.
“There is no guarantee that future decision makers in these key roles will respect or understand tenure and academic freedom in the same way I trust our current Board of Regents understands these principles,” Horton said.
Horton said there is a plausible scenario after saying there are no actual guidelines for what faculty are being reviewed for.
“A new governor is elected, purges the Boards of Regents at each of Kentucky’s Universities, and replaces them with Board members who are more ideologically aligned with the governor,” Horton said. “That new Board now has free reign to impose any system of evaluation it wants on university professors. What if a governor-aligned Board wishes to forbid faculty from teaching evolution, researching vaccines or climate change or eating their lunch at Burrito Shack because they have an ownership stake in Qdoba? What if such a Board decided, in the interest of cutting costs and maximizing ‘efficiency,’ that faculty should be evaluated, not on the quality of their teaching and research, but on something unrelated to the job for which they were hired, such as the total number of credit hours (i.e. tuition revenue) their courses generate for the institution, or whether they were featured on the Murray State News‘ ‘Best Dressed Professor’ social media series?”
Horton said there is nothing in HB 424 that would prevent a scenario like this.
“The entire process relies on the good faith of each Board, the members of which, again, are appointed by politicians,” Horton said.
He also said students have a great deal of stake in this issue, saying it’s probably working best when you don’t have to think about it, like a functional democracy or clean water.
In congruence with Shemberger’s and Bordieri’s comments on academic freedom and engaged scholarship, Horton said tenure provides students a faculty with deep ties to the community. He said “faculty working conditions are student learning conditions,” quoting a decades-long unionizing slogan.
Horton said a university with no good tenure is a university with no good faculty; a good faculty goes elsewhere.
“I think there is a widespread misunderstanding—a misunderstanding seemingly shared by the Chair of the Kentucky House Postsecondary Education Committee, unfortunately—that tenure provides a safe haven for lazy, ineffective or otherwise underperforming faculty members,” Horton said.
