Mission, Kan. is located in the state of Kansas. The University of Texas faculty approved a resolution in support of their freedom to teach about race.
Patrick thought it was a message to go to Hell.
Patrick, a Republican, said it was time to hold the faculty accountable for their perks.
Patrick said at a news conference in November that tenure may be needed.
Conservative officials in red states are saying the same thing. In at least half a dozen states, the review of academic appointments that come with tenure has been presented as attempts to rein in academics with liberal views.
As lawmakers return to statehouses around the country, they are bracing for new challenges.
The trend shows how conservative scrutiny of instruction has extended from schools to higher education. Budget considerations are a part of the equation. In more liberal states, the number of tenured faculty has declined. State governments are decreasing their financial support for universities.
Professors can only be terminated under extreme circumstances. As controversy grows over scholarly discussions about history and identity, advocates for tenure say it's a crucial part of academic freedom.
When it comes time to have a classroom discussion about a difficult topic without tenure, professors are able to play it safe.
Even tenured professors may not be guaranteed employment.
In Kansas, Emporia State University used an emergency measure to cut 33 faculty, most of them tenured, in order to balance the budget.
Before learning that this would be his last year teaching at the school, Max wrote a column that began, "I may be fired for writing this."
He called it a purge. He said the professors were either Democrats or liberals.
Professors were not targeted for dismissal, according to the university. There was a review of how demand for academic programs is changing and where we needed to move in the future.
Jeremy Young of the free-expression group PEN America said that attacks on higher education have been fueled by a shift in how conservatives view colleges. The share of Republicans and independent-leaning Republicans who said higher education was having a negative effect on the country grew from 37% to 59% over the last three years.
In Texas, university administrators are working behind the scenes to squash anticipated legislation that would target tenure, fearing it will hurt recruitment.
Pat Heintzelman said that some people aren't applying for university jobs because of the discussions.
The Stop-WOKE Act was blocked by a federal judge in Florida. The injunction is being appealed. The criteria for evaluating tenured professors would include compliance with the law.
If you can stop students from learning about ideas that a political party in power disagrees with, that is one way to stop those ideas from existing in the society.
There is an argument that tenure gives academic freedom.
He said at a news conference in April that it made it harder for people with differing views to be tenured.
The Republican-backed resolution states that students should be confident that courses are free of political, ideological, religious, or anti religious indoctrination. The task force's members were mostly tenure supporters, so professors were concerned.
The board of regents in Georgia made it easier to remove tenured faculty who have had a negative performance review. Legislation to ban or restrict tenure has been introduced in Iowa, South Carolina and Mississippi, but failed to gain approval.
Rates of tenured faculty have declined over the years. In the first year for which comparable information is available, 39% of faculty members held full-time tenured appointments, according to the AAUP.
College instructors who work part-time usually don't get benefits. They often have to travel from campus to campus to live.
Caprice Lawless, the author of the "Adjunct Cookbook", said that it was a nightmare to write a cookbook.
Lawless, who retired from Front Range Community College two years ago, said she had taken PhDs to foodbanks and watched them cry because they couldn't get enough to eat.
The opposition to tenure has united conservatives for different reasons, according to a San Francisco State University history professor.
Economic conservatives are happy if you attack theokeness of higher education and it leads to a decline in funding.
After World War II, tenure exploded because of the GI Bill, according to Sol Gittleman, a former provost of Tufts University. According to Gittleman, tenure will largely disappear in the coming decades outside the top 100 colleges and universities because of the country's overproduced PhDs.
He said that the critical race theory was an excuse. You wouldn't hear that if there was a shortage.
That's right.
Paul Weber and Anthony Izaguirre are Associated Press writers. The AP education team is supported by the Carnegie Corporation. The AP doesn't have any responsibility for the rest of the content.
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