DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

The Kentucky General Assembly overturned the governor’s veto March 7 to pass House Bill 424 — controversial legislation that many worry will weaken tenure at higher education institutions.

The law will require respective boards at public postsecondary education institutions to establish a process that evaluates faculty and president performance and productivity at least every four years. Notably, the legislation states that those who don’t meet requirements may be removed from the institution “regardless of status.”

While the legislation doesn’t directly state that it weakens tenure, its language has drawn criticism statewide for its potential to more easily enable the termination of tenured faculty.

“HB 424 does not address tenure,” bill sponsor Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, told the Daily News — a sentiment he has reportedly emphasized. “Tenure protects faculty on issues of freedom of speech, political viewpoints and academic freedom. HB 424 would apply only to issues of job performance and productivity just like any other employee undergoes with their employer.”

Still, the legislation’s language prompted an earlier petition that had collected some 500 public signatures calling for Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto, the overwhelming majority from individuals at universities. It “would fundamentally weaken Kentucky’s world class public universities by eroding critical protections for tenure and academic freedom,” the petition states about the legislation.

Tenure is a type of job security for certain faculty earned through a yearslong process that entails submissions of materials on their progress and accomplishments as well as annual evaluations surrounding their progress toward tenure, according to the WKU faculty handbook; typically, consideration of tenure begins in a faculty member’s sixth full year. That’s in addition to other annual evaluations required of university faculty, according to the handbook.

Western Kentucky University Philosophy Professor Audrey Anton, one of the petition signees, told the Daily News that the legislation “is redundant at best and short-sighted at worst.”

“It is redundant because tenured professors and presidents are already reviewed often,” she said. “It is short-sighted because governmental interference (and that’s what this is) in the shared governance of institutions of higher education will drive talent away from Ky.’s public colleges and universities.”

The WKU faculty handbook lays out processes for removing tenured and untenured faculty, and while untenured faculty serve at WKU’s discretion, the university has “a commitment to successively reappoint” a tenured faculty member.

Generally and practically speaking, it rarely happens. At WKU, the last attempt to dismiss a tenured professor, in 2022, fell short in an 0-8 vote by the Board of Regents. WKU confirmed that it hasn’t fired any tenured faculty in at least two decades.

WKU stated that it’s committed to supporting employees, including tenured faculty, and “does not foresee any changes in the importance (it places) on tenure as a result of this legislation.”

The law’s opponents also contend it’ll hamper recruitment of skilled faculty. One of the intentions of tenure is to make the faculty profession more attractive, and Beshear acknowledged as much in his veto message — stating that the bill will “limit employment protections of our postsecondary institution teachers” and “limit Kentucky’s ability to hire the best people …. ”

Western stated it doesn’t anticipate faculty recruitment will be impeded by this new law.

“Campus leadership will now thoughtfully assess what, if any, effect legislation that has just passed may have on campus operations,” Western Kentucky University wrote in a statement. “Regarding HB 424, it appears our existing evaluation procedures already comply with this legislation, so we will just need the Board of Regents to formally adopt them.”

WKU Faculty Senate Chair Gordon “Mac” McKerral, another petition signee, said that since the process is already in place at WKU, he anticipates no issues with compliance.

“The larger issue is lawmakers who know little about higher education in all its forms trying to micromanage it,” he said.

McKerral added that while the law doesn’t change the process WKU uses for evaluating and potentially removing tenured faculty, he is concerned that it feeds into the larger picture nationally of a narrative that challenges the value of a college degree for costing too much and leaving people unable to get jobs.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System stated that its policies already comply with the legislation, so it will not be making any changes.