Tenure was already in decline. Now some Republicans want it gone from colleges for good.

Pat Heintzelman has been teaching for more than 22 years, but she isn’t confident she’ll have a job come this summer.

Heintzelman, an untenured English instructor at a regional university in Texas, got an ominous letter along with others in her department several months ago. The letter reminded them they should have no expectation of having their contracts renewed.

Heintzelman is president of the Texas Faculty Association; she has a track record of speaking out. Now, she’s scared of teaching her usual curriculum, which includes novels that discuss topics such as racism that conservatives have decried as divisive. When she testifies in front of lawmakers, she doesn’t specify which institution she teaches at.  

“If you don’t have tenure, you don’t have a voice,” Heintzelman said. 

A bill in Texas would do away with tenure altogether, prohibiting public colleges and universities from offering it to faculty members hired after this September. The legislation – accompanied by calls from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to ban the practice – is one of several efforts across the country seeking to chip away at professors' job protections through practices such as post-tenure reviews.

Proponents say tenure reforms will improve the student experience and allow for more freedom of expression. But academics say they will do the reverse, dampening state colleges’ competitive edge and chilling speech in classrooms at a time when tenure is already becoming less common. 

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What does tenure mean for professors?

The concept of tenure emerged in the mid-20th century as a means of supporting academic freedom. Professors granted tenure can speak, teach and conduct research about controversial issues without putting their job at risk. It's an indefinite appointment, meaning they can't be fired without cause – committing a crime, for example.

Even before the latest round of bills, however, tenure was already fading in prevalence. Fewer than a quarter of U.S. college faculty members were tenured in fall 2021, according to research by the American Association of University Professors, down from roughly 39% in 1987. Nearly half of faculty members at U.S. colleges and universities were employed part-time in 2021, compared with about a third in 1987.

Women and people of color are far more likely than men and white faculty members to serve in part-time or contingent appointments.

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Is tenure good for students?

Laws that weaken tenure would exacerbate the already grave disparities in job security, pay and scholarship priorities that exist on campus, said Marc Stein, a professor and LGBTQ+ history scholar at San Francisco State University who has studied the topic. 

The average salary of a tenured professor is about $150,000 on average, compared with roughly $66,000 for an untenured instructor. Heintzelman, for example, said she makes $42,000. Part-time faculty typically make a few thousand dollars per course section and receive no fringe benefits.

Weakened tenure protections would also undermine a university's ability to attract and retain talented faculty members, said Glenn Colby, senior researcher for the American Association of University Professors. 

"When you take away the protections that tenure affords then people who are considering entering academia might think twice about it," Colby said. It "makes the institution less able to fulfill its mission of providing students with access to diverse opinions, ideas and experiences."

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Florida leads movement to require post-tenure reviews

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a law last year requiring post-tenure reviews every five years for professors at state colleges. The state's higher education governing body recently established a process for those reviews, which will assess how productive and successful faculty members are in relation to their assigned duties and allow for the termination of those who are "unsatisfactory." A bill introduced earlier this year would further allow university trustees to call for a tenure review “at any time.” 

Now, post-tenure review policies are making their way through legislatures in other states. 

In Louisiana, Republican state Sen. Stewart Cathey late last month introduced legislation that would require annual performance reviews for tenured professors and establish processes for dismissing those who get bad marks.

A bill in Ohio, meanwhile, would among other changes require annual performance evaluations for faculty members in various categories, such as teaching and research, and establish a post-tenure preview process. Student reviews would count for 50% of the teaching component, with one of the mandatory questions asking: “Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender and religious bias?”

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New College faculty asked to withdraw tenure applications

According to Stein, such scrutiny is unnecessary given the lack of evidence that tenured professors contribute less to student learning and scholarship.

But it can also cause “real harm” to faculty and students, Stein said, citing “the perception or reality that faculty work is under surveillance" and the reviews' immense workload. 

In Texas, Heintzelman said the threats to tenure are already having an impact.

“The bills haven’t even passed yet, but the chilling effect in the classroom is definitely there,” she said. “If you don’t have tenure you live in fear your contract won’t be renewed.”

The climate is similar in Florida. Last week, the Tampa Bay Times reported that the interim president of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college, has asked seven faculty members to withdraw their tenure applications.

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Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or awong@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @aliaemily.