The University of Alabama chapter of the American Association of University Professors (UA-AAUP) recently criticized the Alabama House of Representatives' passage of legislation that regulates university governing bodies and allows the removal of tenured professors, despite the chapter being exempt from the bill's provisions.
Last week, the Alabama House of Representatives advanced House Bill 580 (HB580), sponsored by State Rep. Troy Stubbs (R-Wetumpka). The bill would require a university that establishes a faculty senate to develop policies on the body's membership and responsibilities. A faculty senate would serve only an advisory role, thereby negating any "final decision-making authority on any matter of representing institutional positions." It would also require polices that would include periodic post-tenure reviews and authorize the removal of tenured professors after due process.
The bill would not apply to the University of Alabama or Auburn University and its systems. However, during debate on the bill, Stubbs hinted that the legislature's discretion in appropriating funds to the two schools could compel compliance with the bill's provisions, despite lacking true authority to compel the constitutionally created universities.
Despite the exemptions provided in the bill, UA-AAUP still took umbrage at it, taking aim at the veiled threats to the school's funding.
"The Alabama Constitution places the governance of the University of Alabama (as well as of Auburn University) under the purview of its Board of Trustees, not the legislature," UA-AAUP said in a statement. "The provisions of HB580 will therefore not be compulsory for our campus. However, an attack on the core values of any Alabama institution of higher education is an attack on the integrity of all—particularly when legislators imply that the funding of constitutionally created universities may also be at risk if they do not comply. Thus, we believe that HB580 if enacted, will seriously damage The University of Alabama and higher education across the state."
The initial bill included language allowing tenured professors to be removed for acts of "moral turpitude," but that language was removed in the bill's final version. However, it maintained that faculty could be removed for "professional incompetence," a claim UA-AAUP says would leave faculty open to political persecution.
"In a political climate where subjective judgment of 'competency' is casually employed to attack individuals of differing political beliefs or who exercise their first amendment rights to free speech outside the classroom, this language appears poised to weaponize post-tenure review for issues of personal belief and speech, rather than clear standards for competence and professionalism," The statement reads.
Although Stubbs contended that the bill was not targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, the UA-AAUP stated that HB580, combined with the state's previous targeting of DEI in state schools, would further damage faculty morale, already low due to the DEI ban.
"The introduction of HB580, in combination with anti-DEI legislation (SB129) passed two years ago, has already led to a significant decrease in faculty morale at the University of Alabama," the statement continued. "Many of our colleagues have left for other jobs or are actively applying elsewhere. If HB580 is passed, this will have serious downstream consequences, not just for the quality of the education that we can offer, but eventually it may lead to a significant decline in revenues through lost external grant funds and declining enrollment–especially at the graduate level. HB 580 would likely result in the unintended consequences of a decline in UA's international reputation as a top-level research institution and UA's ability to recruit top talent."
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