Dive Brief:
- The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a new tenure policy that will make it easier to lay off tenured faculty and puts more power with the chancellor, but Chancellor Rebecca Blank says tenured faculty are safe.
- The Wisconsin State Journal reports Blank has defended tenure and the work it allows faculty to produce, saying UW-Madison, as a top-ranked university, will not lay off tenured faculty under any circumstances.
- While faculty may believe Blank, they know she will not be chancellor forever and the revised policy opens the door to future layoffs under different leadership.
Dive Insight:
The Wisconsin tenure policy was once considered among the best in the nation, enshrined in state law. The legislature, however, struck tenure protections with its most recent budget, forcing the UW system to develop new policies. While UW-Madison approved strong tenure protections on its own campus in November, they went beyond what the Board of Regents ultimately passed, requiring the latest update.
Wisconsin faculty have begun referring to the new policies in the state as “fake tenure.” Some have left the state’s institutions altogether, jumping ship while they have other options. The reality is that tenure is somewhat under attack across higher education. A greater share of the professoriate is not tenured or tenure-track than has been the case for decades, and plenty of administrators see no need for tenure on campuses of the future.