Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, speaks on the House floor about a bill that would give universities and colleges the ability to remove faculty members and presidents for not meeting “performance and productivity requirements.” (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
FRANKFORT — A bill that some Kentucky academics argue could erode faculty tenure in the state’s public universities passed the House Tuesday.
House Bill 424 from Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, would give universities and colleges the ability to remove faculty members and presidents for not meeting “performance and productivity requirements” set by the institutions’ boards. The bill would require faculty and presidents to be evaluated at least once every four years.
House members voted 78-17 on the bill mostly on party lines. Rep. Scott Lewis, of Hartford, was the only Republican to join most of the chambers’ Democrats in voting against the measure.
The House also passed in a voice vote a floor amendment to the bill from Tipton that removed the limit on universities’ employment contracts.
“This is so we have a more efficient, more effective system of public education for students across the commonwealth,” Tipton said.
Tipton repeated past comments he’s made about the bill on the floor, again saying the bill was “not about tenure.”
While presenting the bill in the House Committee on Postsecondary Education last week, Tipton said the bill was “about employment contracts” and not tenure in higher education. Tipton is the chair of that committee and had introduced similar legislation last session.
During the committee, a few professors expressed opposition to the bill. Julie Cyzewski, an associate professor at Murray State University, told the committee Tipton’s bill “would deeply complicate and confuse the process of teaching and running the university” and the process laid out in the bill was “very arbitrary,” which could jeopardize student learning.
Michael Frazier, the executive director of the Kentucky Student Rights Coalition, was the only public citizen to support the bill in the committee. He said the coalition supports the bill because it “does closely protect academic freedom” while ensuring that the “status quo of higher education does not remain” in the state.
On the House floor, Rep. Rachel Roarx, D-Louisville, said she was voting against the bill because it would add “extra burden to our universities and professors.” She had previously passed her vote in the committee last week.
The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration this session.