Straws in the Wind - Part 225

From Inside Higher Ed: Faculty in South Dakota could lose their tenure status if they don’t meet expectations, per a new policy the South Dakota Board of Regents approved in December. It requires tenured faculty at the state’s six public higher learning institutions to undergo a performance review every five years, beginning during the 2026–27 academic year. While all faculty members already receive an annual performance evaluation by their immediate supervisor, the new policy adds another layer of review and considers five years’ worth of those evaluations to rank a professor’s performance.

Approval of the policy makes South Dakota the latest state to enact a post-tenure review policy. Since 2020, numerous other states—including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio—have done the same, whereas many others have weakened tenure through various other means. Indiana, for example, passed a law in 2024 that requires colleges to conduct post-tenure reviews every five years and deny tenure to faculty unlikely to foster “intellectual diversity.”

...Under the policy, if a faculty member received an annual performance rating of “does not meet expectations” or was placed on a faculty improvement plan in the previous five years, “tenure will be non-renewed, and the faculty member will be issued a one-year term contract for the following academic year.” The policy notes that the employee would still be eligible to apply for nontenurable positions within the system...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/tenure/2026/01/09/south-dakota-adopts-post-tenure-review.

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From Inside Higher Ed: An assistant U.S. attorney apologized Tuesday on behalf of the Trump administration for wrongfully deporting a Babson College freshman... But it still remains unclear if or when the student will be brought back to the U.S. The student, Lopez Belloza, was first detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thanksgiving as she attempted to fly home to Texas and surprise her family. 

A lawyer filed for her release in Massachusetts the next day, and a judge promptly ordered the administration not to transfer or deport her. But by that point, Belloza had already been moved between several facilities in Massachusetts and transferred to Texas. The day after that, she was deported to Honduras...

[The judge in this case] has yet to rule on whether the government had to bring Belloza back to the U.S. This is a “tragic case of bureaucracy going wrong,” he said. “It might not be anybody’s fault, but she was the victim of it.”

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/01/15/ausa-apologizes-deporting-babson-college-student.