FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill awaiting action from Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky. has faculty at Kentucky’s public universities fearful about the future of tenure. House Bill 424 grants university boards full authority to determine performance and productivity standards for faculty members.

What You Need To Know

  • HB 424 would subject university faculty to review every four years from the institution’s board of governors 

  • Opponents said the bill is too vague and does not specify productivity and performance criteria

  • The bill passed along party lines earlier this month 

  • The bill’s sponsor said it will make education more efficient for students

The bill passed along party lines earlier this month. It would subject university presidents and other faculty to regular performance and productivity reviews from the institution’s board of governors.

“It does not spell out what the criteria are, it doesn’t spell out how it’s connected to individual’s jobs, nor does it spell out what the process for the evaluation will be,” said Karen Petrone, president of the University of Kentucky chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Petrone and over 500 faculties across the state petitioned Gov. Beshear to veto the bill. She said the bill would have a chilling effect on faculty tenure and academic freedom.

“The ultimate reason for academic freedom is to allow researchers to convey truths that they find in their research even if they are inconvenient,” Petrone said.

Petrone and other opponents of the bill said it goes hand-in-hand with House Bill 4, which outlaws DEI initiatives at Kentucky universities.

“House Bill 424 is simply an avenue to go after tenured professors who the DEI bill couldn’t touch,” said Savannah Dowell, a member of United Campus Workers.

Dowell, also a member of Kentuckians for Higher Education Coalition, said any threat to tenure, specified or not, will hurt retention and recruitment of world class faculty to come to Kentucky.

“If professors cannot obtain tenure or if tenure is just obsolete because you can be eliminated at any time, then new faculty are not going to apply here,” Dowell said.

The bill’s sponsor, State Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, said it’s not a tenure bill and is to make education more efficient for students.

“Tenure refers to things like freedom of speech, freedom of expression, academic freedom; we’re not talking about those things here. The intent of this is if we have someone who’s not doing their job,” Tipton said.

Any bill vetoed by the governor will likely be overturned by the general assembly when they reconvene on Thursday, March 27.

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