Tennessee Tech updating its faculty tenure policies to align with a new state law that requires all employees to be treated equally during conduct-related disciplinary actions regardless of tenure status.
Interim Provost Dr. John Liu told the Board Of Trustees Thursday the university must implement the changes by July 1 to comply with House Bill 2194.
“In essence, what I summarized is that even if you are tenured faculty, you put something on social media that is facing disciplinary actions, your tenure does not matter,” Liu said. “When you are dismissed, your tenure is not going to protect.”
Liu said the university spent significant time collaborating with deans, department chairs, and the faculty senate to prepare the updates. Liu said that while the academic due process for earning tenure or evaluating performance remains unchanged, the protocol for handling conduct issues has shifted.
Liu said any faculty member facing disciplinary action for conduct will now be subject to Policy 650.
“The due process we have been using to evaluate academic performance, whether you earned credibility to be tenured or if you are not performing post-tenure, what process we follow to de-tenure faculty, there’s no fundamental changes with those aspects,” Liu said.
Liu said the university previously updated these specific tenure policies just a few months ago, but the passage of the new state law necessitated immediate further revisions. Liu said the board is required to review and update all university policies at least once every four years.
Associate Provost and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies Dr. Julie Baker said other policy updates, such as those regarding student academic integrity and graduate faculty appointments, are part of a routine periodic review. Baker said the revision to the student academic integrity policy was primarily administrative to fix broken links within the document.
