Friday, September 22, 2023

Dickinson State is the new WVU

Steve Easton, president of North Dakota’s Dickinson State College (and critic of tenure) is looking to cut and cut and cut. From Inside Higher Ed:

Easton told the Faculty Senate in an email Aug. 9 that he was considering cutting undergraduate degrees in English, math, political science, communication, music, theater, chemistry, environmental science and computer technology management, including the teaching tracks for those subjects, such as math education. Left would be degrees in history, biology, elementary education, computer science and other areas. . . .

Earlier this year, Easton expressed opposition to common tenure protections. He said that he drafted a version of a “Tenure With Responsibilities” bill for North Dakota’s House majority leader.

The bill the majority leader introduced would’ve let Easton and the Bismarck State College president fire tenured faculty members based on those presidents’ own reviews, with no possibility of appeal.
Related posts
Emporia, firing : West Virginia University cuts

comments: 2

Sean Crawford said...

The only tenure related story I know is when a U.S. citizen, a professor, was speaking at a disabilities conference in my city, years ago.
Secondly, I remember that instead of using numbers he translated everything into a bar graph, he said it was to make it easier for folks like me who can't translate very well in our heads.

Firstly, he told us a story: He had a criticized a horrible institution for innocent handicapped people in the States. The board of directors included a household name journalist. I think the institution was for-profit. Well, the directors (whom he may not have even named) went to the state governor. "We want him. fired!" The governor went to the dean of his university, ordering, "I want him fired!" The surprise for me was when the dean went to the faculty head who said quietly and apologetically, "I can't fire him, he has tenure."

I learned that day how a prof doesn't have to be a communist or a notorious offender to be fired by the establishment, even in our enlightened times.

Michael Leddy said...

That’s right. These administrative strategies appear to be ways of getting around tenure — eliminating programs instead of firing faculty members for cause.