UNC trustees' explanation for tenure delay is troubling and ‘chilling'

John Preyer, chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, finally has explained why the board delayed voting on 33 faculty tenure applications for months before hurriedly approving them this week with an email vote between its regular meetings.
'Deferring the tenure vote was the responsible thing to do given the lack of clarity at that time on the state budget,' Preyer said in a statement to The News & Observer on Friday. 'Our concern was to wait and see what amount of money is coming from the state of North Carolina before we act on tenure, and it would be reasonable and responsible to get that information. The board will always try to be a good steward of state dollars provided to the University.'
The explanation is unlikely to reassure faculty. Many were alarmed by the board's breaking with the usually routine approval procedure and its withholding action on all but one tenure application from faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. Tenure approvals for faculty in health sciences were not delayed.
Tenure-track faculty typically complete a six-year probationary period at the university and then expect to be approved for tenure or leave. To be approved for tenure, a candidate's work must pass an extensive review, including assessments by outside experts. Faculty leaders said leaving tenure applications hanging at the last step of approval was unfair and added uncertainty about the process that could make it difficult to recruit faculty for tenure-track positions.
Belle Boggs, president of the North Carolina chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said trustees should not be suspending tenure applications that have passed several levels of the university. 'The Board of Trustees is not expert in any of these fields,' she said. 'It goes beyond inappropriate. This is an egregious abuse of their power.'
Comments made by trustees in emails obtained by Inside Higher Ed and The Daily Tar Heel indicate that the delay reflected not only funding concerns but opposition to tenure itself. Apparently the trustees were prepared to deny tenure to save money if the next state budget reduces the university's funding. The board relented after an outcry by faculty leaders.
Trustee Jim Blaine said in an email that the board should have waited until its meeting at the end of July to vote on the tenure applications, despite the faculty protests.
Blaine wrote: 'The optics on this are terrible and make the administration look weak and irresolute. The reversal of course appears responsive to public groaning and gnashing of teeth – bad behavior by a few members of the faculty.'
Trustee Marty Kotis opposes the idea of tenure. He said in an email, 'I find it difficult to believe university professors uniquely require lifetime job security comparable to positions held by the Pope or Federal Judges.'
But trustee Richard Allison said in an email that the board should respect the process despite fiscal concerns and philosophical objections. 'People on the slate did what was expected of them over an extended period of time under long-established rules. I just do not believe that we should change the rules on them at the final hour,' he said.
The tenure issue is resolved for this round, but the delay has added to faculty concerns that political conservatives among the trustees are out to weaken the role and the job status of faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences, which some on the right consider a liberal indoctrination center.
For Victoria Ekstrand, a professor at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, the tenure episode adds to fears that conservative political appointees want to intimidate and possibly dismiss faculty.
'The chilling effect on the campus in this past year has been extraordinary,' she said. 'People have been quite under the radar. They're afraid, especially at the junior (faculty) level.'
Ekstrand said open and honest discussion between trustees, administrators and faculty could defuse the situation.
'When you create a chilling effect like this, people stop talking to each other. We lose the shared governance and the trust in each other,' she said. 'It doesn't have to be this way.'
But with reactionary Republican lawmakers controlling university appointments and President Trump leading a war on universities, it looks like 'this way' is the way it will be.
Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com

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