State legislators have pulled a bill that would have banned Tennessee Universities from awarding professors academic tenure.
Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham said that, as drafted, the bill would have removed tenure starting next summer. Oldham said the bill would have had significant consequences if it had passed.
“It would put us at a significant competitive disadvantage in trying to attract and retain the best quality faculty members that we can get,” Oldham said. “So it would have been difficult.”
Oldham said he had voiced Tennessee Tech’s concerns with the bill to various legislators. Oldham said tenure is something that some legislators and the public at large often misunderstand.
“It’s often mischaracterized as a guaranteed job for life, which it’s really not,” Oldham said. “But the way it’s often mistakenly viewed, I can understand the concerns. And so a lot of my work is to help everybody understand the appropriate role for tenure and how it can be very beneficial for the state of Tennessee and our institutions. But I also understand how, in some cases, it can be abused. And that’s the part that we need to make sure that we’re doing a good job on our end to use it appropriately and to have sound policies in place so that it’s not abused.”
If the bill had passed, Oldham said it would have been costly for Tennessee Tech to adapt.
“We would have to offset the lack of tenure with a higher level of salary and other benefit compensation, and make sure that we provide an environment where faculty members of the quality we are always looking for can be successful career-wise, and convince them that this is the right place for them,” Oldham said. “It would require a significant amount of additional financial investment to be able to overcome that.”
Tennessee’s House Higher Ed Subcommittee Chair and State Representative Justin Lafferty pulled the bill from this year’s session after saying he stumbled into the history of tenure. Though the bill is pulled from this year’s session, it does not mean the bill can not be revisited in the future.