A bill to reshape tenure at Alabama universities will be at the top of the to-do list Tuesday in the Alabama House of Representatives as lawmakers return from spring break.
House Bill 580, sponsored by Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, provides a new litany of reasons that a tenured professor could be dismissed: professional incompetence, failure to complete a post-tenure review professional development program; failure to perform duties or meet professional responsibilities, or engaging in conduct with moral turpitude that negatively affects the institution or the professor’s performance.
“I have one bachelor’s degree and two different master’s degrees, all from different institutions, and I would say that the general expectation or understanding of a faculty senate would be, or my expectation would be, that they would serve in an advisory role and be able to provide tremendous insight and direction and boots on the ground, if you will, to those who are leading the university,” Stubbs told the Alabama Reflector Monday.
The bill has hit a fast track as the session enters its final days. Filed on March 5, the bill had initially been assigned to the Education Policy committee but five days later moved to the House Ways and Means Education committee, where it passed without discussion last week. If House lawmakers pass the bill Tuesday, it will move to the Senate with five days still remaining to get through the upper chamber.
The bill further limits faculty senate bodies to advisory roles, limits all appointments of faculty senate to institution’s governing bodies and automatically abolishes all existing faculty senates unless approved by their respective governing bodies.
The bill comes in the midst of pressure on universities from Republican lawmakers to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and language.
The timing of the bill also aligns with a video circulating that shows University of South Alabama professor Joshua Lioi interacting with members of the university’s Turning Point USA chapter, calling them members of a “fascist propaganda organization.” He also apparently called the students “dog-shit grifters” at a prior event.
