Faculty, mostly at the University of Nebraska, lined up to oppose an effort from State Sen. Loren Lippincott that would be the first in the nation
Zach Wendling. Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Faculty groups and administrators at the University of Nebraska lined up Tuesday to oppose a legislative proposal to end faculty tenure, with many saying it could handicap NU.
State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City, who introduced Legislative Bill 1064, said he feels the “pendulum” has swung too far toward protecting professors instead of students and away from merit and performance. His bill would eliminate tenure as an option for faculty in NU and the Nebraska State College System, as well as community colleges that don’t currently offer it.
Lippincott said his goal is not to stifle academic freedom but to put benchmarks in place and allow for more transparency. He offered a comparison between higher education and a farm.
“A lot of these horses plowed the field very straight when they were young and they were earning their tenure,” Lippincott told the Legislature’s Education Committee. “But then those horses ended up staying in the barn and just simply eating hay.”
‘A club of one’
Interim NU President Chris Kabourek, the first person to testify in opposition at the hearing, framed tenure as something NU needed in its “toolbox.” He said that while he is a strong supporter of academic freedom and tenure, he does not support lifetime job guarantees; yet, tenure is not an easy feat.
“It takes years of work and a proven record and scholarly performance and productivity, and that’s good news for Nebraska,” Kabourek said.
Should LB 1064 pass, Kabourek added, it would put NU at a “great competitive disadvantage” to peer institutions as he predicted that faculty would look elsewhere for positions.
“Eliminating tenure would tie both hands behind our back at the very time our university is setting high aspirations to go compete with the best of the best throughout the country,” he said.
Luke McDermott, on behalf of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s student government, said it takes the most talented researchers five to six years to obtain tenure and that, without the protections it offers, no professor seeking long-term work would choose Nebraska.
“We’ll be the last choice for the academic job market,” McDermott said.
McDermott said the bill could also worsen brain drain and drive away prospective students.
Lawmakers in other states have unsuccessfully tried to ban tenure through similar measures, Lippincott said, noting that efforts have stalled in South Carolina and Iowa but advanced in at least one chamber of the legislatures in Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio. No states have passed such legislation.
“We can’t afford to become a club of one,” Kabourek said.
Times have changed
Colby Woodson, a UNL graduate student, said the institution of tenure plays into a form of academic caste system and said it’s not necessarily what it used to be.
“It’s not the ‘60s — there’s not necessarily the same level of political tumult there once was,” Woodson said.
Woodson said there’s a question of whether tenure rewards the “best and the brightest” or those well-connected. He also asked whether it can, informally, shield bad actors who may have a reputation for penalizing students, which he said he’s seen at UNL.
“Is it more trouble than it’s worth to call them out?” Woodson asked.
‘Pinnacle professional achievement’
Under LB 1064, the governing boards of affected institutions would create, in lieu of tenure:
- Employee agreements.
- Acceptable grounds for termination, including just cause, program discontinuance and financial exigency.
- Annual performance evaluations of all faculty.
- Minimum standards of good practice for faculty.
- Standards for review and discipline of faculty and procedures for termination on acceptable grounds.
“They should have the keys to let loose the weight of those not helping to carry the load,” Lippincott said.
Chancellor Paul Turman of the Nebraska State College System, Kabourek and NU faculty said such measures already exist. An NU spokesperson affirmed that faculty can be eliminated for each reason Lippincott listed.
For example, the Board of Regents voted to eliminate two tenured faculty in just a little over a year last year.
Chris Exstrom, Faculty Senate president at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, testified in opposition to the bill on behalf of his UNK group and similar governing bodies at NU’s other campuses.
Exstrom said that when he applied for tenure, he did so with a six-inch binder that included years of documentation — teaching materials, evaluations, research grants, publications and notes of how he impacted students.
“When I was awarded tenure, I considered that my pinnacle professional achievement,” Exstrom said. “What I would soon learn is that tenure provides incredible ongoing motivation.”
John Bender of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska said he sat in on multiple annual performance evaluations during his two years as an associate dean of UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
“There is accountability in the system already,” he said.
In his 32 years as a professor, Bender added, he saw some tenured professors get fired and others denied tenure. He explained that tenure is not a guarantee that someone can collect a check without working. He said he worried the legislation could lead to policing speech based on content.
‘Raise the bar’
State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, Education Committee vice chair, said she appreciated Bender’s insight and his explanation of how tenure works and to learn that faculty members have checks and balances.
“I think that the public needs to know that,” Albrecht said. “This is not for naught, it might take a while. … But just know that we are hearing what you’re saying and we are also understanding where Senator Lippincott may very well be coming from.”
State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, whose district includes UNL, questioned during the hearing whether a 1977 court case — NU Board of Regents v. former Nebraska Gov. James Exon — would supersede Lippincott’s bill. That case determined the Legislature can’t dictate NU policy, as that remains vested in the NU Board of Regents.
Kabourek testified that the senator had opened an important dialogue about rigor and accountability.
“I think we can find ways to raise the bar while still preserving a valuable tool offered by every other university whose company we want to keep,” Kabourek said.
The committee took no immediate action on LB 1064.