The general counsel of a public university in Kansas has seemingly gone rogue: He conceived of a new state bill that alters faculty tenure, and his employer had no idea.
So when the Kansas House Committee on Judiciary held an initial hearing on Tuesday, Steven Lovett of Emporia State University found himself facing off against his own institution’s governing board, which opposes the legislation.
“While submission of this bill comes as a surprise to the university, the university respects Mr. Lovett’s constitutional rights and freedom of expression,” an Emporia State spokesperson wrote to The Chronicle.
House Bill 2348 isn’t an outright ban on tenure; it’s an attempt to define certain limits on tenure in state law. The legislation proposes that tenure “shall not be defined, awarded, or recognized as an entitlement, right, or property interest in a faculty member’s current, ongoing, or future employment by an institution.” Under the bill, any benefits or preferences given to a tenured faculty member could be “at any time revoked, limited, altered or otherwise modified by the awarding institution or by the state Board of Regents.”
Rep. Steven Howe, a Republican, introduced the bill “on behalf of” Lovett. Howe didn’t respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment.
I have been told already that I have just committed career suicide. But I am not concerned.
Kansas isn’t the only state where lawmakers are considering changes to tenure this year: Bills have been proposed in Texas, North Dakota, and Ohio.
“While I am in favor of tenure, and this bill does not abolish tenure, I am not in favor of it being a property right because it obligates Kansans to a long-term, unfunded fiscal liability,” Lovett said at Tuesday’s hearing.
“I have been told already that I have just committed career suicide. But I am not concerned,” Lovett added. The general counsel said he’ll “renounce and surrender” the tenure he was awarded by Emporia State, where he also serves as an associate professor in the School of Business.
Mallory Bishop, president of Emporia State’s Faculty Senate, said she was “utterly shocked” that Lovett spearheaded the legislation. “My mouth dropped, and I had to leave my office for a second to walk around because it was so shocking to me,” Bishop said. “I can’t believe that something like this would be coincidence.”
The “property interest” language in the bill mirrors a federal judge’s December ruling in favor of 11 former professors who sued Emporia State over their terminations. Lovett was named as a defendant in that suit, along with a number of other current and former administrators.
Emporia State, a regional public institution that has struggled with declining enrollment and financial challenges, has spent the past three-plus years tussling with its faculty over tenure and budget cuts. The saga began in 2021 when the Kansas Board of Regents, which governs the state’s six public universities, approved a policy allowing institutions to more easily lay off tenured faculty members — by removing a requirement that campuses first declare financial exigency.
Emporia State then laid off 30 tenured and tenure-track professors, prompting an investigation by the American Association of University Professors and the professors’ lawsuit.
The December ruling allowed many of the professors’ claims against the university to proceed — including one asserting that the faculty members should have been entitled to certain due-process rights because tenure gave them “a legitimate expectation in continued employment.”
On Tuesday, Rep. John Carmichael, a Democrat, asked Lovett if he would resign from his role as Emporia State’s top lawyer. Lovett said he would not step down.
“I do not feel that those are in conflict. I provide the best legal advice I can to my client,” Lovett responded.
If tenure was eliminated or significantly weakened, that would have a devastating impact on our institution’s ability to recruit and retain the best scholars in the world.
Bill Opposition
At the hearing, several college leaders in Kansas — including Douglas Girod, chancellor of the University of Kansas, and Richard Linton, president of Kansas State University — spoke in opposition to the bill. So did Blake Flanders, president and chief executive of the Kansas Board of Regents.
Girod, Linton, and Flanders spoke about how the protection of tenure allows public universities to be competitive in retaining and recruiting faculty, and in securing more research opportunities. Opponents expressed concern that faculty would leave Kansas if the bill became law.
“If tenure was eliminated or significantly weakened, that would have a devastating impact on our institution’s ability to recruit and retain the best scholars in the world,” Girod said.
Phillip Gragson, a lawyer representing the laid-off professors in their lawsuit against Emporia State, said the bill is “problematic” because it could imperil universities’ compliance with various accreditation requirements.
“To become accredited, universities must maintain certain standards, and these likely include maintaining a policy with respect to academic freedom and tenure,” Gragson wrote in an email to The Chronicle.
For instance, the American Bar Association requires that law schools establish and maintain conditions to attract and support faculty, have a policy on academic freedom and tenure, and offer full-time faculty members a form of job security similar to tenure.
“If tenure is not a property right or entitlement to some protection for academic freedom, this nullifies the credentialing standards that many professional postsecondary education institutions must meet,” Gragson wrote. If an institution in Kansas loses accreditation, Kansas employers “cannot employ graduates for jobs which require licenses such as lawyers,” he added.
When questioned by the committee, college presidents and professors emphasized that their universities already have tenure, mid-tenure, and post-tenure-review processes in place, and that tenure can be revoked for legitimate reasons.
At Washburn University, tenure is “discretionary and conditional,” said Kim Morse, president of Washburn University’s AAUP chapter, referencing the bill’s language.
“Tenure status is not granted — it’s earned only after lengthy assessment of process and evaluation,” said Girod, of the University of Kansas.
Bishop, a clinical instructor and director of ethnic and gender studies at Emporia State, said over 100 faculty members attended an emergency faculty meeting on Monday. Bishop said it’s been “very hard to grow back trust” with the administration since the mass faculty layoffs.
At the hearing, Flanders, the Board of Regents president, noted that Emporia State had “some financial issues,” which factored into the board’s decision to enact a policy allowing the institution to eliminate faculty and staff positions. Still, Flanders opposed statewide changes to tenure.
“But do we want to throw the tenure baby out with the bath water and not be able to recruit, particularly at our research universities, high-end research faculty?” Flanders asked. “I think the answer is no.”
