Smith proposes amendment to protect tenured professors

Yesterday, Feb. 27, State Rep. Vernon G. Smith (D-Gary) proposed an amendment to Senate Bill 202 that would remove all provisions impacting professor tenure. This bill poses grave risks to university faculty and tenured professors. The bill restructures the tenure and promotion policies and requires that “intellectual diversity” be factored into faculty reviews, tenure consideration and recruitment policies. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 32-61. 

“Last week, the House Education Committee heard hours of testimony from university professors and faculty fearful of this attack on professor tenure. University and college presidents have expressed that they are afraid this bill will drive current professors to leave the state and discourage new professors from coming to the state. This will lead to a brain drain. 

“Tenured professors are already subject to annual reviews after acquiring tenure. On top of that, many of our schools require national accreditation. That is a whole separate level of review that in many cases requires an assessment of diversity on the campus. The requirement to add an additional evaluation every five years to consider ‘intellectual diversity’ is not only unnecessary, but harmful for our institutions of higher education. 

“Forcing professors to pass an ‘anti-woke’ test every 5 years will do nothing but turn away talented professionals from our educational institutions. This will hurt the recruitment and retention efforts for faculty and students alike and lower the quality of instruction.”