Request for Board of Regents to Permit Necessary Discourse and Study of its Proposed Changes to (1) Procedures for Dismissal of Faculty Members, (2) Institutions’ Authority to Grant Tenure, & (3) Post Tenure Review & Annual Review Standards/Process

WHEREAS at the September 9, 2021, meeting, the Board of Regents proposed new policies for adoption during the October 12-13, 2021, meeting that substantially alter (1) the procedures for the discipline and dismissal of faculty members (8.3.9), (2) the authority of institutions to grant tenure (8.3.7.1), and (3) the standards and process for post tenure review and annual evaluations (8.3.5.1, 8.3.5.4, 8.3.6, 8.3.6.1, 8.3.7.1, and 8.3.7.3);

WHEREAS these proposed changes to the Board of Regents Policy Manual dramatically impact faculty conditions of employment; 

WHEREAS these proposed changes have not been widely circulated to impacted faculty, and impacted faculty have not been given adequate opportunity to comment upon these proposed changes; 

WHEREAS the members of the USG faculty council, whose mission is to “to promote and foster the welfare of system faculty through the combined creativity and expertise of faculty representatives from system institutions”, at a previously unscheduled last-minute meeting with the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, expressed serious concerns about the proposals and their effect on academic freedom and tenure;

WHEREAS the USG faculty and faculty council must have an opportunity, on behalf of the system institutions’ faculty, to consider and comment upon the proposed changes; and now, therefore, 

BE IT RESOLVED the faculty request that the Board of Regents table further action on these proposed changes so that impacted faculty and the USG faculty council may fully consider and comment upon these proposals.