Kansas termination policy changes

[jimbogumbo]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/22/firing-professors-kansas-just-got-lot-easier

[Hibush]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/22/firing-professors-kansas-just-got-lot-easier

This move seems consistent with recent policy in Kansas state government that educating Kansans is a harmful activity that should be limited as much as possible. A long term commitment to faculty really stands in the way of that policy goal.

I hope the policy objective can be changed, but until it does it seems prudent for Kansas faculty to be looking elsewhere. The specific responses to exigency are likely just one manifestation, but may be the trigger for more faculty to act.

[apl68]

Sounds like Kansas schools will be heading for the "Dire Financial Straits" thread soon.

[Cheerful]

Covid is being used as an excuse to do all kinds of things.  Some good, some very bad.

[Parasaurolophus]

I have a friend who just retired from there. He's been telling me about this sort of thing for years now, so I'm not entirely surprised to see them going this far.

Unilaterally changing the provisions of an employment contract to benefit the party making the changes seems... like a recipe for lawsuits.

[mahagonny]

Unilaterally changing the provisions of an employment contract to benefit the party making the changes seems... like a recipe for lawsuits.

Just what the taxpaying and tuition/fees paying public needs from its state university system. Faculty, their lawyers and litigation disputing that a worldwide pandemic is a special, unusual event.

[mahagonny]

con't

I certainly sympathize with faculty who would lose their employment, but it seems the lawsuit would end up being a waste of everyone's time and money. COVID-19 being type of occasion when hard choices have to be made.

[arcturus]

COVID-19 being type of occasion when hard choices have to be made.

Financial exigency is already a reason to abrogate tenure. That is true whether the financial difficulties are due to mismanagement, demographic trends, or a global pandemic. Since the needed escape clause was already in existence, there was no need for these extreme measures, that undermine the very concept of tenure.

[mahagonny]

Sounds like Kansas schools will be heading for the "Dire Financial Straits" thread soon.

What makes that more likely, declaring financial exigency or some other way? From the May 20 piece they linked:

'Under exigency, the faculty should be involved in identifying those affected by any appointment terminations, Tiede added. Exigency guidelines can also provide due process protections, like giving terminated faculty members the right to file grievances, as well as other provisions like adequate notice and severance pay.'

Sounds like the exigency option is more expensive than what they are trying. And

"Widespread exigency declarations may still be unlikely, according to experts. Researching exigency procedures is an administrator doing his or her homework, but following through with formal action can seem like a high-stakes gamble.
That's because "exigency" is a fraught term that could broadcast to the public that an institution is in trouble."

[Vkw10]

Sounds like Kansas schools will be heading for the "Dire Financial Straits" thread soon.

I left Kansas several years ago, for several reasons. During my decade in Kansas, there was a  consistent gradual decline in state finances overall, not just in support for higher education. I liked the climate, the city I lived in, the low cost of living, the people I worked with, the landscape when we took a day trip. But the state's finances, including years of shortsighted decisions, were a factor in deciding to apply selectively for positions elsewhere. I'm sad but not surprised that Kansas is making it "temporarily" easier to terminate employment of tenured faculty.

[kaysixteen]

Isn't KS still digging out of the enormous hole, financially and intellectually, that Brownbackism stuck it into?   I read an article a year or so ago, probably pre-covid, that compared it to Missouri-- the gist of the piece was that Kansas traditionally was, and Kansans traditionally prided themselves on being, well, better educated, better schooled, better social-institutioned, etc., than its neighbor to the east, but that Brownback had set the state on a path towards eliminating this, largely by convincing Kansans that these things were bad, and they should not be taxed for them.

[mahagonny]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/22/firing-professors-kansas-just-got-lot-easier

This move seems consistent with recent policy in Kansas state government that educating Kansans is a harmful activity that should be limited as much as possible. A long term commitment to faculty really stands in the way of that policy goal.

I hope the policy objective can be changed, but until it does it seems prudent for Kansas faculty to be looking elsewhere. The specific responses to exigency are likely just one manifestation, but may be the trigger for more faculty to act.

So the government is against educating Kansans because funding is tight, while higher education professionals in Kansas should show how dedicated they are to educating Kansans by leaving the minute they see a few clouds on their horizon? I'm sure you are a fine educator but this attitude is one way we get a bad name.

[Hibush]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/22/firing-professors-kansas-just-got-lot-easier

This move seems consistent with recent policy in Kansas state government that educating Kansans is a harmful activity that should be limited as much as possible. A long term commitment to faculty really stands in the way of that policy goal.

I hope the policy objective can be changed, but until it does it seems prudent for Kansas faculty to be looking elsewhere. The specific responses to exigency are likely just one manifestation, but may be the trigger for more faculty to act.

So the government is against educating Kansans because funding is tight, while higher education professionals in Kansas should show how dedicated they are to educating Kansans by leaving the minute they see a few clouds on their horizon? I'm sure you are a fine educator but this attitude is one way we get a bad name.

No, the government is against educating Kansans because education is bad. Funding has nothing to do with it. It is not a case of a few clouds on the horizon, but a deluge having washed the campus out to sea. [Perhaps a geographically inappropriate metaphor for Kansas, but it is what I had.]

[mahagonny]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/22/firing-professors-kansas-just-got-lot-easier

This move seems consistent with recent policy in Kansas state government that educating Kansans is a harmful activity that should be limited as much as possible. A long term commitment to faculty really stands in the way of that policy goal.

I hope the policy objective can be changed, but until it does it seems prudent for Kansas faculty to be looking elsewhere. The specific responses to exigency are likely just one manifestation, but may be the trigger for more faculty to act.

So the government is against educating Kansans because funding is tight, while higher education professionals in Kansas should show how dedicated they are to educating Kansans by leaving the minute they see a few clouds on their horizon? I'm sure you are a fine educator but this attitude is one way we get a bad name.

No, the government is against educating Kansans because education is bad. Funding has nothing to do with it. It is not a case of a few clouds on the horizon, but a deluge having washed the campus out to sea. [Perhaps a geographically inappropriate metaphor for Kansas, but it is what I had.]

If educating young people can't take place without long term commitment to teaching staff, then virtually no one thinks education is good or necessary. I expect you've been following Kansas more than I have, but hey, why single them out? It's a minor detail where the whole system crumbles first. I am prompted to point out that temp jobs and the deprofessionalizing/dismantling of the college teaching career have been underway widespread since I was a young man, and the result of choices in the higher education management, including state university systems. Thirty years or more I've been hearing tenure track as the norm is coming back. The question 'can teaching and learning take place to our satisfaction without long term commitment to the educators themselves? Yes!' was answered long ago. And the answer was not provided by state legislators. The only way this is going to sound to the lay public is 'the higher education royalty (tenured) wants their privileges.' (fat lady sings)
Sorry if it sound like a scolding. I actually am. I don't know how else to talk about what I observe.

Two and one half years old, and already long overdue when it appeared....https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/tenure-already-dead