IHE: Arizona Bill Restricting Faculty Governance

[Wahoo Redux]

Arizona GOP Bill Would Stifle Faculty Power in Governance

Lower Deck:

The legislation, nearing passage, would bolster the power of presidents and regents while reducing faculty members to merely "consulting" on governing, academic and personnel decisions.

Arizona lawmakers are close to passing a Republican bill that would downgrade faculty members' role in shared governance of public universities while bolstering the clout of presidents and state regents.

Currently under Arizona law, the faculty "shall participate in" or "share responsibility for" governing, academic and personnel decisions. Under the new bill, professors could only "consult with" university leaders on such decisions.

The impetus for this change is a bit of a mystery

It's no mystery. 

The GOP is losing the hearts and minds of America.  They need a whipping boy.  And they need a simple explanation for why they are losing. 

[lightning]

Arizona GOP Bill Would Stifle Faculty Power in Governance

Lower Deck:

The legislation, nearing passage, would bolster the power of presidents and regents while reducing faculty members to merely "consulting" on governing, academic and personnel decisions.

Arizona lawmakers are close to passing a Republican bill that would downgrade faculty members' role in shared governance of public universities while bolstering the clout of presidents and state regents.

Currently under Arizona law, the faculty "shall participate in" or "share responsibility for" governing, academic and personnel decisions. Under the new bill, professors could only "consult with" university leaders on such decisions.

The impetus for this change is a bit of a mystery

It's no mystery. 

The GOP is losing the hearts and minds of America.  They need a whipping boy.  And they need a simple explanation for why they are losing. 

This is way too specific of an attack on governance, so I can't chalk it up to some broad ideological attack from the GOP and certainly not the MAGA wing of the GOP.

An attack on faculty such as this had to have come from someone with insider knowledge of how governance works and doesn't work in higher ed. It probably came from an administrator (or former administrator) who has the ear of state politicians.

Some higher-ed administrators (who knows--maybe a lot of them now) would gladly align themselves with an ideology that they disagree with, in order to limit the power of those pesky faculty members.

[apl68]

That was kind of my thoughts on the issue too, lightning.

[Sun_Worshiper]

AZ's governor is a Democrat. Will she veto? Or do the Reps have a veto-proof majority on this?

[Wahoo Redux]

This is way too specific of an attack on governance, so I can't chalk it up to some broad ideological attack from the GOP and certainly not the MAGA wing of the GOP.

An attack on faculty such as this had to have come from someone with insider knowledge of how governance works and doesn't work in higher ed. It probably came from an administrator (or former administrator) who has the ear of state politicians.

Some higher-ed administrators (who knows--maybe a lot of them now) would gladly align themselves with an ideology that they disagree with, in order to limit the power of those pesky faculty members.

I don't know how you separate the ideologies in the Republican party.

This seems to me like a pretty typical conservative ploy to demonize faculty in some way, whether it comes from an insider explaining how faculty governance works or not.  The supposed insider found a welcome ear in the Republican halls that they would not find in the Democrat halls.  The dem governor will certainly veto this.

The public justification for the bill is financial mismanagement, which anyone with an inkling of university administration knows is not done at the professor level.

I cite these three paragraphs:

The impetus for this change is a bit of a mystery: House Bill 2735's prime sponsor, Republican representative Travis Grantham, has said it's related to financial issues at the University of Arizona, but it's unclear how. That financial crisis, brought on largely by the flagship university miscalculating its amount of cash on hand by millions, was caused by administrative issues—not by any problems with faculty power. Yet Grantham has stressed the need to reiterate the power of the University of Arizona president, in particular; faculty senate members have argued the bill would increase the president's power.

Grantham, who didn't respond to interview requests Friday, has made some critical comments about faculty members. He's told the Arizona Daily Star that University of Arizona faculty members "took control" of the university and that "the most left of the left" are "grabbing and clinging to power." He went on to say they should take civics classes because they don't understand the legislation, and that he doesn't know or care who caused the financial crisis on the campus.

HB 2735 is just one of multiple bills that GOP-controlled state legislatures have pushed this year that threaten to diminish faculty members' power and freedoms. Two weeks ago, Indiana's Republican governor signed legislation that could deny and revoke tenure for faculty members who don't foster enough "intellectual diversity" to satisfy their campus boards. Last week, Alabama's governor signed a ban on professors requiring course work that advocates for "divisive concepts". And earlier this year, Arizona Republicans proposed a "grade-challenge department" that could change professors' assigned grades for students who accuse them of political bias—though the legislature has yet to pass that bill.

How is this not pure partisan politics and propaganda?

[larix]

Arizona GOP Bill Would Stifle Faculty Power in Governance

Lower Deck:

The legislation, nearing passage, would bolster the power of presidents and regents while reducing faculty members to merely "consulting" on governing, academic and personnel decisions.

I'm not sure about the rest of you but this is already how "shared governance" works at my institution. Faculty really have no power and all recommendations by faculty senate are "advisory" to the President. Our bylaws don't even have no-confidence votes built in. And this is in a purple state.

[lightning]

This is way too specific of an attack on governance, so I can't chalk it up to some broad ideological attack from the GOP and certainly not the MAGA wing of the GOP.

An attack on faculty such as this had to have come from someone with insider knowledge of how governance works and doesn't work in higher ed. It probably came from an administrator (or former administrator) who has the ear of state politicians.

Some higher-ed administrators (who knows--maybe a lot of them now) would gladly align themselves with an ideology that they disagree with, in order to limit the power of those pesky faculty members.

I don't know how you separate the ideologies in the Republican party.

This seems to me like a pretty typical conservative ploy to demonize faculty in some way, whether it comes from an insider explaining how faculty governance works or not.  The supposed insider found a welcome ear in the Republican halls that they would not find in the Democrat halls.  The dem governor will certainly veto this.

The public justification for the bill is financial mismanagement, which anyone with an inkling of university administration knows is not done at the professor level.

I cite these three paragraphs:

The impetus for this change is a bit of a mystery: House Bill 2735's prime sponsor, Republican representative Travis Grantham, has said it's related to financial issues at the University of Arizona, but it's unclear how. That financial crisis, brought on largely by the flagship university miscalculating its amount of cash on hand by millions, was caused by administrative issues—not by any problems with faculty power. Yet Grantham has stressed the need to reiterate the power of the University of Arizona president, in particular; faculty senate members have argued the bill would increase the president's power.

Grantham, who didn't respond to interview requests Friday, has made some critical comments about faculty members. He's told the Arizona Daily Star that University of Arizona faculty members "took control" of the university and that "the most left of the left" are "grabbing and clinging to power." He went on to say they should take civics classes because they don't understand the legislation, and that he doesn't know or care who caused the financial crisis on the campus.

HB 2735 is just one of multiple bills that GOP-controlled state legislatures have pushed this year that threaten to diminish faculty members' power and freedoms. Two weeks ago, Indiana's Republican governor signed legislation that could deny and revoke tenure for faculty members who don't foster enough "intellectual diversity" to satisfy their campus boards. Last week, Alabama's governor signed a ban on professors requiring course work that advocates for "divisive concepts". And earlier this year, Arizona Republicans proposed a "grade-challenge department" that could change professors' assigned grades for students who accuse them of political bias—though the legislature has yet to pass that bill.

How is this not pure partisan politics and propaganda?

It is pure politics and propaganda. The insider is leveraging it to advance their own agenda. The wording of the change

The legislation, nearing passage, would bolster the power of presidents and regents while reducing faculty members to merely "consulting" on governing, academic and personnel decisions.

tells me that an insider in the university system is the "impetus" for the change and not the broader right-wing attack on higher education. Right wing attacks on higher education are framed in much more brusque and oafish language. Using the word "consulting" or "advisory" are the words that an admincritter uses to surreptitiously degrade governance. That kind of language comes from the inside of higher ed.

[Wahoo Redux]

Okay.  It just all seemed of a piece to me, something that could only happen with Republicans because the ground they stand on is so saturated with this particular animus right now.  I guess it could be one angry little worm somewhere in the system who is milking the Republican psyche.

It doesn't help these folks were so incompetent with money (seriously, was somebody embezzling or something?  How does an entire building full of administrators who have accountants get things so wrong?)

Hopefully it will be vetoed.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Looks like the governor vetoed this:

https://azluminaria.org/2024/06/21/hobbs-vetoes-a-bill-that-would-have-weakened-shared-governance

[Wahoo Redux]

Looks like the governor vetoed this:

https://azluminaria.org/2024/06/21/hobbs-vetoes-a-bill-that-would-have-weakened-shared-governance

Rock On!!!

[Mobius]

GOP has a 31-29 majority in the state House and a 16-14 majority in the state Senate. It won't get overridden, but the legislature can pass a ton of messaging bills that get vetoed.