Louisiana Senate Proposes Tenure Policy Review Board

Louisiana Senate Chambers.The Louisiana Senate has introduced a resolution to create a task force that will examine the practices of tenured professors and tenure policies at the state’s colleges and universities. The resolution, SCR6, was authored by Republican Sen. Stewart Cathey. The “Task Force on Tenure in Postsecondary Education” will report to Louisiana lawmakers with suggestions on changing tenure policies.

“Postsecondary students should be confident they are being exposed to a variety of viewpoints, including those that are dissenting,” the resolution says. It will ensure that “faculty members are not using their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination.”

But LSU faculty are concerned.

“They are seeking to weaken tenure to use our job status as a cudgel to compel or limit speech in a way that current tenure standards do not permit,” said Dr. Daniel Tirone, Louisiana State University (LSU) political science professor.

Bob Mann, an LSU mass communication professor, wrote in an email to faculty senators, “The survival of tenure in the coming years may depend on this faculty learning to defend itself. Not waiting on the LSU president or board chair to give us permission to enter the political fray.”