Georgia's University System Takes On Tenure (not in a good way)

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/us/georgia-university-system-tenure.html

No paywall
https://archive.is/0hhfM

In a direct challenge to the hallowed tradition of tenure, Georgia’s public university system will now let its colleges’ administrations remove a tenured professor with little to no faculty input.

The Board of Regents on Wednesday approved the new policy, which is the only one of its kind in the country, according to the American Association of University Professors. The move is being criticized by many professors, politicians and advocates for academic freedom as a threat to tenure, which is intended to protect faculty from dismissal without just cause, allowing them to develop thoughts or ideas that may be unpopular.

“Georgia is a huge outlier now, because that’s the whole point of tenure: it includes due process protections,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the professors’ association, which is threatening to censure the university system. “There should now be a new word for it in Georgia, because tenure will not mean tenure there.”

The Board of Regents, maintains that the policy change will streamline the process of removing faculty members who do not adequately contribute to a university, and the 19-member board unanimously approved the new measure on Wednesday. In the fall of 2020, there were more than 5,800 tenured faculty in the entire Georgia university system.

*snip*

[jpak]

1. Here comes the thought Gestapo

This will make sure that no new potential faculty will ever apply for professor positions there.

Nope

[SYFROYH]

2. This is not good, but it will have no impact on filling positions

Most faculty research is noncontroversial and few faculty protest much of anything.

And there are way too many PhDs looking for jobs.

[jpak]

3. Wait unil you turn in a national championship football player for cheating

Like I did in 198O

And see where it gets you at UGA

I got an MS and PhD there

And they still ask me for money?

Stop with the capitalistic Running Dawg bullshit.

Yup

[SYFROYH]

4. Are you saying you were fired as faculty for turning in a student-athlete?

[jpak]

6. No, as a grad student

The faculty lived in fear of the athletic department.

I can see where this is headed

Yup

[jpak]

7. And I remember when asshole GA legislators in cowboy hats

Came to the Institute of Ecology to give Dr. Eugene Odum a "talking to" because he opposed a stupid plan to dig up GA's salt marshes for phosphorus mining.

He was on my MS committee, so I remember this well.

[jpak]

8. So, if they are climate change or women's study or LGBTQ scholars

They are not "controversial?

Give me a break.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Is this a "Right-to-Work" university?

Can U of Texas be far behind?

[róisín_dubh]

9. I'd probably end up unemployed if I lost tenure...

given that I teach legal history (read: Critical Race Theory) and Latin American History (read: the US fucked around and committed loads of war crimes). My state legislature is trying to make it illegal to teach CRT.
But it's cool. I'm resigning my faculty position in May and doing something different with my life.
I didn't get a PhD to deal with Neo-liberal, corporatist bullshit like my university is doing, getting rid of World Languages and all.

[jpak]

10. Yup

And good for you.

Fight the Good Fight