As I write, the Kansas House Committee on Judiciary is about to hear HB 2348, which would eliminate tenure at higher education institutions governed by the State of Kansas.
The bill emerged from a legal dispute between certain faculty members and administrators at Emporia State, yet its consequences would reverberate far beyond that.
Ending academic tenure would lead to a brain drain, with high-achieving professors leaving for other states or private universities that still recognize tenure, potentially costing Kansas hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, gifts, and other external funding.
No institution would be immune, but the University of Kansas (including KU Medical Center) and K-State would be hit particularly hard. This is exactly why attempts to abolish tenure have been rejected by conservative Republicans in Texas.
Many believe that tenured professors cannot be fired, but this is false.
University policies make clear the expectations held toward faculty, who can be dismissed for breaking the law, violating university policy, or chronic low performance regardless of tenure.
Tenured faculty cannot be dismissed without cause, but procedures can and do exist to remove them for cause, and these are indeed used when necessary.
Another common misconception is that tenured faculty cannot be laid off in the event of a university downsizing. This is also false.
University policy manuals make clear the procedures for suspending or terminating programs. If necessary, faculty whose employment is connected to eliminated programs can be dismissed, even if they have tenure. Granted, these procedures typically call for tenured faculty to be reassigned to other courses or programs rather than being dismissed, if possible. But, if no option for reassignment is feasible, tenured faculty can and have been dismissed despite good work performance, when their programs are ended.
An excellent case in point happened a few years ago at Missouri Western State University.
In 2020, Missouri Western’s administrators were forced to make painful, even devastating budget cuts in response to declines in both enrollments and state support.
Throughout the process, administrators communicated with faculty, students, and the community about the criteria being used to make these tough decisions.
They partnered with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in order to insure that the core values of academic freedom and shared governance were upheld throughout the process.
If tenure does not grant absolute job security, then why do we have it? The answer is this: under no circumstances are tenured professors to be removed from their jobs due to the arbitrary decisions of administrators, or pressure from politicians.
As an example, consider University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax, who supports President Trump and has outspoken, conservative views on race and gender.
Penn administrators have tried to fire Wax, but they have been blocked by tenure. Even the efforts they have made to sanction Wax without firing her have been opposed by nonpartisan free speech groups such as Freedom and Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), who have fought for Wax and her tenure just as they would for any professor being targeted due to their controversial, outspoken viewpoints, be they left, right, or center.
