Big changes will be coming to how academic tenure is handled at Georgia’s public colleges and universities. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the State Board of Regents, which oversees public higher education in Georgia, voted unanimously and without discussion to change its policy on post-tenure review.
Board of Regents members say that the changes, which include the power to fire tenured faculty who have two subpar annual reviews in a row, are designed to measure student success. But opponents, including hundreds of professors who watched Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting online, say that the changes are an assault on free speech and academic freedom, and that those changes will make recruiting faculty members more difficult.
One group that opposed the change, the American Association of University Professors has threatened to censure the University System of Georgia.
