Alabama House committee approves bill changing tenure, faculty senate programs

A bill that would change faculty senates and tenure programs at public colleges and universities advanced out of an Alabama House committee last week.

HB 580, sponsored by Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, would limit faculty senate bodies to advisory roles; require periodic reviews for tenured professors and give boards of trustees at colleges and universities the final say in curriculum.

“I have one bachelor’s degree and two different master’s degrees, all from different institutions, and I would say that the general expectation or understanding of a faculty senate would be, or my expectation would be, that they would serve in an advisory role and be able to provide tremendous insight and direction and boots on the ground, if you will, to those who are leading the university,” Stubbs said in an interview Monday.

The bill passed through the House Ways and Means Education committee Thursday with no discussion.

Under the legislation, tenured professors could be dismissed for professional incompetence; failure to complete a post-tenure review professional development program; failure to perform duties or meet professional responsibilities, or engaging in conduct with moral turpitude that negatively affects the institution or the professor’s performance.

The bill does not define what “professional incompetence” and “moral turpitude” are. Stubbs said that will be left to the discretion of the colleges and universities.

“The bill places an expectation for the administration of the university to develop their own methodology by which they would institute this program. We’re simply providing the framework and the expectation that they do this with some level of regularity,” Stubbs said.

The legislation would also only allow the governing body of a higher education institution to appoint members to the faculty senate. All existing faculty senates would be abolished unless approved by the governing body. 

Attempts to reach the Alabama Commission on Higher Education for comment were not immediately successful.

Lance Ingwersen, a professor at Jacksonville State University, said Tuesday the bill seems to be a solution in search of a problem.

“I guess I struggle to understand, like, why do we need a framework for something that seems to already be functioning? Like, why don’t we need, I guess, like, a new framework and new restrictions over something that seems to already be relatively well functioning at universities,” he said.

If passed, the bill would go into effect Oct. 1.

Ingwersen said there is a possibility that the bill passes both chambers of the legislature because of how quickly it has moved.

“I think the prospects of it passing have gone way up, and I think that we will definitely know more if we see a similar bill get introduced in the Senate. I think that’s the one piece that’s missing right now,” he said.

Ingwersen said in a statement after the interview that bills like HB 580 “decrease faculty morale.”

“They also make faculty consider leaving either the university (and the state) or the profession,” the statement said. “The so-called “Great Defection” of faculty is read. So, in the end, bills like these harm student experiences at the university.”

There are five days left in this year’s legislative session. It goes to the House.