Straws in the Wind - Part 200

From Forbes: Three conservative groups are proposing model legislation that would dramatically change faculty tenure paths, teaching loads, research activities and hiring authority. The proposed act is the product of The Goldwater Institute, Defending Education and the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. Their “American Higher Education Restoration Act” takes aim at what it describes as “a glut of academic ‘research’ that almost no one reads and which does not meaningfully advance human knowledge.” It would carve out a special pathway to tenure for faculty who teach courses in “American Constitutionalism and Western Civilization,” increase the teaching loads for faculty who work in non-STEM disciplines, create an oversight group — the majority of which are non-university officials — to grant exceptions to the teaching load policy, and impose new governing board control over the hiring of individual faculty.

The proposal contains four sections, which include the following specific “reforms.”

Tenure for Excellence in Instruction of Americanism & Western Civilization

The governing board of a public university “shall establish an Excellence in Americanism and Western Civilization teaching tenure pathway.” Faculty who teach a foundational education in Americanism and Western Civilization course would be eligible for tenure, including submitting expedited applications, without having an expectation for research or requiring an evaluation of their research.

Increased Teaching Responsibilities for Faculty

Full-time faculty who teach in disciplines other than STEM or Americanism and western civilization would be required to maintain a 3-3 teaching load (18 credit hours per year). Faculty members could be exempted from this requirement if, as one example, they receive “external funding for research or other purposes to proportionately compensate the institution for the reduction in the faculty member’s contracted teaching duties.”

Financial Allowance for Taxpayer Supported Research

Other than faculty conducting STEM-related research, faculty members who wish to have a lower teaching load in exchange for conducting research would have to have their request approved by a “Taxpayer Funded Research Award Committee,” composed of the following members, or their respective designees:

The chair of the board of regents, the state superintendent of public instruction, the chairman of the house appropriations committee, the chairman of the senate appropriations committee, the governor, the state treasurer, and three faculty appointed by the governor (one who is in STEM, one who is in a non-STEM discipline, and one who teaches a course in Americanism and Western Civilization course.

The act also authorizes a taxpayer of the state or the attorney general to file a suit for injunctive relief against a public university “that expends taxpayer funding in violation of this article to contract for a faculty member for less than the required teaching commitment.” ...

Full story at https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/12/09/proposed-model-bill-would-change-college-tenure-teaching--research/