Academic Freedom and Tenure

Stabilizing Persons, Creating New Lines

At some of the fourteen campuses represented by the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), there are a dozen or more tenure-track faculty who used to teach the same courses in the same departments but on contingent appointments.

The APSCUF contract features two unique contract provisions (11.G and 11.H) that permit the conversion of both persons and lines to the tenure track.

From the General Secretary: What the AAUP Stands For

When the passenger next to me on a flight asks what I do for a living, I say I work for a nonprofit association. When he or she asks which one, I am tempted to answer, “The AARP.” One letter makes a big difference. Everyone knows what the AARP stands for. So what does the AAUP stand for?

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Clark Atlanta University

Report discussing the declaration of an enrollment emergency by the administration of Clark Atlanta University and its subsequent action to terminate the appointments of approximately one-fourth of the total faculty, with no notice and four weeks of unconditional severance salary.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: University of Texas Medical Branch

The report of the investigating committee concerns the actions taken by the administration of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, after a declaration of financial exigency at that institution by the University of Texas Board of Regents, to terminate the appointments of more than 120 faculty members, approximately one-third of them tenured. The actions followed a suspension of operations at the medical branch and its affected hospital as a result of the devastation inflicted on September 13, 2008, by Hurricane Ike. Faculty members received between six and nine months of notice, depending on their tenure status and length of service.

The Casualties of the Twenty-First-Century Community College

From eliminating tenure and stifling academic freedom to relying on a corporate curriculum, recent developments at community colleges have taken their toll.

"Universities, the Major Battleground in the Fight for Reason and Capitalism"

Conditions placed on gifts from the BB&T Foundation range from the seemingly benign, funding for faculty and student research and a speaker series, to the sharply contentious, required reading of Ayn Rand.

Three Clicks and Academic Freedom Is Out

A 2008 report from a libertarian think tank in North Carolina set the stage for a problematic kind of “transparency,” where posting faculty syllabi would “expose a professor’s deviation from normal expectations.”

The Costs of a Climate of Fear

When scientists are attacked professionally and personally, independent science and the public suffer.

Victory for Tenure Rights in Louisiana

At a time when the news about faculty tenure rights has been grim in many public higher education systems, recent events at one of Louisiana’s three university systems brought a welcome reminder that faculty action can be effective— even in the most challenging circumstances.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bethune-Cookman University

Report dealing with due process, tenure, sexual harassment, and financial exigency in 2009 at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black university. The report concerns the actions taken by the administration to suspend and then dismiss four professors, two with tenure, without having demonstrated cause for its actions in hearings before faculty peers. The report also deals with the administration's actions to terminate the appoint ments of three other professors without advance notice, without affording academic due process, and in two cases without the protections of due process that under the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure should have been provided because of the length of their service.

Pages

Subscribe to Academic Freedom and Tenure