Despite the defeat of a bill in the 2023 North Dakota Legislative Assembly that would have decimated tenure rights for faculty at Bismarck State College and Dickinson State University, those same protections are again under fire. This time, the threat is coming from members of the State Board of Higher Education.
A Post-Tenure Ad Hoc Committee of the State Board has been reviewing tenure and post-tenure review processes at public colleges and universities for the past year, and recently released a report with findings and recommendations for tenure that could risk the ability of our institutions of higher learning to recruit and retain high-quality faculty. If the Board enacts these recommendations, it could reduce the job security of all tenured faculty and arbitrarily limit the number of tenured positions at two-year colleges by 2030.
Members of the State Board of Higher Education need to hear from you about the importance of tenure!
