ATLANTA (AP) – Tenured professors at Georgia’s public universities will face a new set of job reviews that regents say will help them improve but that some faculty members say will undercut the job protections and freedom of expression that tenure is supposed to guarantee.
Regents unanimously approved the policy Wednesday without discussion. It requires tenured faculty to undergo a review every five years. All but one of Georgia’s public universities already require such reviews: Georgia Gwinnett College doesn’t grant tenure. But 96% of professors pass the current evaluations with no requirement for improvement.
“We really needed to create a process that was much more effective at being able to build faculty careers across a lifetime,” Tristan Denley, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in a Tuesday committee meeting. He described the current review process as “onerous, time-consuming, with really very little benefit.”
Opponents say the plan infringes on tenure, undermines faculty involvement in peer reviews and provides a shortcut for firing professors that could be abused. More than 1,000 faculty members across the system signed a petition against it.
“They have an intent and it is clear as it ever was: give us tenure in name only,” wrote Matthew Boedy, a University of North Georgia professor who is the president of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors.