Dive Brief:
- The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin issued a joint statement about tenure on Wednesday, ahead of the Wisconsin Board of Regents’ Friday meeting, where a discussion of tenure policy is on the agenda.
- The Huffington Post reports an early draft of the regents’ proposed policy included an allowance for layoffs of tenured faculty due to “program discontinuance, curtailment, modification, or redirection,” and while that language has been removed, there is still concern over the future of tenure in the state.
- The draft policy still allows for program prioritization based on financial considerations for the purpose of discontinuing academic programs and laying off faculty, which the AAUP has censured other universities for in the past.
Dive Insight:
The Wisconsin legislature stripped tenure protections from state law in its last budget and the University of Wisconsin system is still debating a new policy to recreate it at a more local level. UW-Madison moved ahead of the Board of Regents, members of which are appointed by the governor, and approved a new campus tenure policy this past fall. At the time, there were concerns that if the Board of Regents approved weaker protections, faculty would not be helped by a stronger campus policy.
The Wisconsin tenure fight is an example of state lawmakers potentially overreaching into university business. While legislators argued tenure protection in state law is rare, the elimination of the protection was clearly political. North Carolina is among other states where the future of the public university system is threatened by legislative activism.