A bill introduced in the Iowa Legislature this session seeks to end tenure in all public regent universities.
When a professor earns tenure it is considered a great honor, and tenured professors can only be terminated under extreme circumstances such as a severe financial crisis or a discontinuation of the professor’s program of study.
This is the third year in a row the bill has been proposed in the Iowa Legislature by Sen. Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale), but the bill has never made it to the Governor’s desk.
Proponents of the bill want more accountability for professors in Iowa’s public universities, while Iowa’s Board of Regents states tenure is “job security in order to create and maintain an atmosphere for the free exchange of ideas and inquiry necessary for educating Iowa’s students and advancing knowledge in democracy.”
“Right now the way the bill is written, it really only pertains to regent institutions,” Iowa Valley Community College District Director of Governmental Programs Cindy Schulte said.
The bill would affect Iowa State University, University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa, but would not extend to Iowa’s community colleges such as Marshalltown Community College.
Iowa’s community colleges do not have any record of tenure policies, but language in the bill to end tenure refers to the Community College Quality Faculty Plan which is managed by the Iowa Department of Education.
“Almost the way it was written the bill was not drafted to specifically address the Community College Quality Faculty Plan, just the tenure system the regent institutions have intact,” Schulte said. ”Community colleges have the Quality Faculty Plan in place and the regents have the tenure system in place.”
The Iowa Board of Education states, “each college’s Quality Faculty Plan contains, at a minimum, nine components addressing the professional development of faculty and staff, administrative procedures, plan maintenance, faculty and staff orientation, and recordkeeping.”
Similar to tenure tracks at regent universities, the College Community Quality Faculty Plan addresses professional development of professors overtime, but does not provide an opportunity for indefinite job security like tenure systems do.
The bill has been assigned a subcommittee in the Iowa Senate Education Committee, but the subcommittee has not scheduled a meeting to discuss the bill.