Kevin Vranes has a phud in Physical Ocean- ography and Cli- matology. He now studies sci- ence policy and politics at the You have to love legislative language. A few peeps in the Colorado legislature are trying to revisit the post-tenure policies of all higher ed institutions in the state. Presumably this is in response to Ward Churchill's rants about WTC victims and Nazis and the fact that politicians were just shocked and dismayed that anybody saying such unpatriotic things couldn't be fired on the spot. To hell with your academic freedom, you elitist snobs!!
This bill just made it out of the House Committee on Education, and basically rewrites post-tenure review rules to sound essentially just like pre-tenure rules, which makes me wonder why you'd even have tenure at all. Maybe that's the point of the legislation.
But the fun is in the last clause of the bill:
1 SECTION 3. Safety clause. The general assembly hereby finds,
2 determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate
3 preservation of the public peace, health, and safety.
Because, you know, if those professors who fall asleep once they get tenure aren't thoroughly reviewed for
10 FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE
11 POLICIES OF THE GOVERNING BOARD OF AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER
12 EDUCATION, INSUBORDINATION, NEGATIVE PEER OR STUDENT REVIEW,
13 PLAGIARISM, RESEARCH MISCONDUCT, CONVICTION OF A FELONY OR CRIME
14 OF MORAL TURPITUDE, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, MISREPRESENTATION, OR
15 POOR STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT OR ANY OTHER CONDUCT THAT FALLS
16 BELOW MINIMUM STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY.
then the public peace, health and safety might be seriously compromised.
Comments
# 1 | GrrlScientist | February 25, 2006 2:12 PM
oh goody. with any luck, they will succeed in replacing all tenured professors with part-time disposable professors who are paid abysmally, provided no benefits whatsoever, and who never know from one semester to the next if they have a job. yessirree, that'll teach those arrogant academics the true value of intellectual achievements and dedication to education!
# 2 | CanuckRob | February 25, 2006 8:55 PM
While they are at it they should remove the lifetime status of supreme court judges. Of course getting rid of all those troublesome professors will work well in ocnjucntion with the stupid academic bill of rights crap that some states seem to be pushing. Students will have the right to refuse to be challenged so having intelligent and challenging professors is redundant.