Straws in the Wind - Part 250

From Inside Higher Ed: Faculty members at regional public and community colleges in Oklahoma can no longer be granted tenure. Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt decreed the end of tenure in an executive order, effective Thursday. The state has a “constitutional and statutory responsibility to steward taxpayer dollars wisely and ensure public institutions of higher education operate with accountability, transparency, and measurable outcomes,” the order states.

Public regional universities, which educate more than 54,000 students in the state combined, “shall not grant new lifetime tenure appointments,” the order states. Instead, they may hire faculty under fixed-term, renewable contracts, and the renewals are dependent on professors’ performance, student outcomes, “alignment with workforce and Oklahoma economic needs” and “institutional service.” Faculty members at these institutions who already have tenure may retain it. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 761 faculty members at Oklahoma regional colleges had tenure in 2024, and 412 faculty members were on the tenure track.

Faculty at public research universities—which includes the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and their health sciences institutions—may still receive tenure or tenure-track appointments, but will be subject to post-tenure review every five years or fewer and may be fired for “sustained failure to meet established performance standards.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/tenure/2026/02/05/tenure-eliminated-oklahoma-colleges.

Straws in the Wind - Part 245

From Inside Higher Ed: Beginning next month, a new test will join the SAT and ACT as an admissions option for prospective students applying to the United States’ elite service academies: the Classic Learning Test, an up-and-coming exam that focuses on passages from the Western canon... For years, it was relatively niche, serving primarily as an academic progress exam for private classical schools, an educational movement that promotes the study of classic Western literature and other liberal arts. Some colleges and universities allowed it as an entrance exam, though many were test optional, meaning a student could submit their CLT score if they felt it bolstered their application... That changed in 2023, when the State University System of Florida’s Board of Governors began accepting the CLT—in addition to the better-known SAT and ACT—as an admissions exam for its public universities, which all require test scores for admission, as well as for its flagship Bright Futures scholarship program.

Now, more than two years later, Arkansas and Oklahoma have followed suit, allowing submission of the CLT for admission to their public institutions, and students in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming can submit CLT scores for state merit scholarships. In addition, the University of North Carolina System recently began accepting CLT scores for students who meet a GPA threshold. The test has also become a darling of the conservative right, whose members argue that it is more rigorous than its competitors and can “restore merit” in higher education...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2026/01/29/clt-test-beloved-conservatives-continues-growing.

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From Inside Higher Ed: A collection of public school districts and university faculty members are challenging Department of Homeland Security policies that allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to conduct detainment activities on or near public education campuses. The complaint, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, comes in the wake of a surge of ICE presence in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and the killing of two American protesters, Alex Pretti and Renee Good. As the threat of immigration enforcement grows, the plaintiffs argue that ICE action at public K-12 schools and on college campuses is not only a violation of the rights of immigrants but also a disruption to the lives of U.S. citizens. 

Historically, federal regulations deemed public education institutions, churches and other religiously affiliated spaces as “sensitive locations” and therefore they were off limits to immigration enforcement teams, except in rare pre-approved circumstances. But on Jan. 21, 2025, President Trump revoked that policy, opening the flood gates to increased ICE activity in all spaces...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/05/ice-sued-over-policy-allowing-immigration-actions-campus.

Straws in the Wind - Part 180

From the Cavalier Daily: Some University [of Virginia] faculty have expressed skepticism about the intentions behind Freedom of Information Act requests they have received in recent years from Virginia residents and organizations. While acknowledging the right of individuals and organizations to file FOIA requests to obtain public records — such as course syllabi or emails — some faculty also claim that the law has been weaponized and created a sense of curriculum policing at the University.

According to the Code of Virginia, the Virginia FOIA law ensures access to “public records in the custody of a public body or its officers and employees.” FOIA says that “all public records shall be available for inspection and copying upon request,” unless there is an exemption invoked. Exemptions include certain personnel records, scholastic records, health records or other information which is shared with a public institution under the condition of confidentiality. Any Virginia citizen can file a FOIA request to receive records from a state public body.

...According to Assoc. Sociology Prof. Ian Mullins, recently some FOIA requests have targeted faculty within the College of Arts and Sciences Engagements program. The Engagements program is a yearlong sequence of small, seminar style courses for first-year College students that aims to introduce them to the liberal arts and sciences. Janet Spittler, Engagements program co-director and associate religious studies professor, confirmed via an email statement to The Cavalier Daily that every course in the Engaging Aesthetics Pillar — one of four pillars in the program which focuses on exploring the world through “the lens of human creativity” — has received a FOIA request for its syllabi. Spittler was not able to confirm when these requests were filed, nor whether the requests were limited to the Fall 2025 semester or not.

...Although [Media Studies Prof. Robin Means] Coleman emphasized that individuals and organizations have the right to access these records, and that these rights are crucial for holding public institutions accountable, she also stressed that this right has been abused to target certain offices and faculty at universities across the country. “I'm not opposed in any way to the spirit [or] the principles of what's behind [open records requests],” Coleman said. “The challenge that folks are facing is navigating the weaponization of that really useful tool … It becomes sort of de facto censorship that faculty have to worry about.” ...

Full story at https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/11/faculty-question-the-motives-behind-foia-requests-for-course-materials-text-messages.

Note: UC emails, etc., are subject to Public Records requests. You should not assume privacy.

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From the NY Times: A University of Oklahoma student says she is the victim of religious discrimination because a psychology instructor gave her a zero for an essay that cited the Bible and said that “the lie that there are multiple genders” is “demonic.” The complaint by the student, Samantha Fulnecky, follows a series of similar conflicts at colleges around the country over how professors should talk about gender in the classroom, a battle in which each side insists it is protecting academic freedom and First Amendment rights.

The instructor who flunked Ms. Fulnecky on the essay has been placed on administrative leave while the school investigates the episode, according to a statement the University of Oklahoma posted on social media. The instructor is a graduate student at the university. Dozens of professors have lost their jobs or been disciplined in recent months over issues related to political speech, often because of posts on social media. Texas A&M University fired a faculty member who was accused of teaching a course that recognized more than two genders, after a video of her discussing gender in class was posted online.

...The instructor, who was not named in the university’s statement, declined to comment, writing in an email that, “as advised by my lawyer, I will not be making any public statements at this time.” ...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/oklahoma-bible-essay-gender-teasing-zero.html.

Affirmative Action: UC versus Oklahoma

As blog readers will know, California voters banned affirmative action in university admissions under Proposition 209 in the mid-1990s, effectively endorsing a resolution by the UC Regents of that period. Voters recently refused to repeal Proposition 209, despite an endorsement of that repeal by the Regents.

Now the matter of affirmative action has come before the U.S. Supreme Court in cases involving Harvard - a private university - and the University of North Carolina - a public university. The case has attracted friend-of-the-court briefs from various universities. Given the Court's recent willingness to overturn precedent with regard to abortion, it appears that its current position on affirmative action is also at risk. The NY Times reports:

...Two of the country’s top public university systems, the University of Michigan and the University of California, were forced to stop using affirmative action in admissions. Since then, both systems have tried to build racially diverse student bodies through extensive outreach and major financial investment, well into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Those efforts have fallen abysmally short, the universities admitted in two amicus briefs filed this month at the Supreme Court, which is set to consider the future of affirmative action in college admissions this fall...

The University of California system says it has spent more than a half-billion dollars since 2004 to increase diversity among its students...

The Supreme Court is scheduled on Oct. 31 to hear the lawsuits brought by the anti-affirmative action organization Students for Fair Admissions that challenge the race-conscious methods that Harvard and the University of North Carolina use to pick freshman classes. The organization says that Harvard discriminates against Asian Americans and that North Carolina gives an admissions boost to underserved racial minorities. And the group argues in its own brief, filed this week, that ending affirmative action nationwide would help improve diversity at the University of California and the University of Michigan, “because they could better compete with universities who currently use race.” ...

Affirmative action is banned by local edict in nine states, including Michigan and California. Some states without affirmative action programs, like Oklahoma, have taken the opposite position in briefs to the court, arguing that the University of Oklahoma “remains just as diverse today (if not more so) than it was when Oklahoma banned affirmative action in 2012.” Thirteen other states joined the Oklahoma brief...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/us/affirmative-action-admissions-supreme-court.html.

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We are experimenting. You can hear the text above at the link below:

What could possibly go wrong?

Inside Higher Ed presents a catalog of things already going wrong at universities planning some kind of in-person reopening: [excerpt]

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over the weekend reported a cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to a fraternity and another cluster linked to a residence hall, the third and fourth such clusters announced by the university since it restarted classes last Monday. A cluster is defined as five or more cases located in close proximity. The Faculty Executive Committee at Chapel Hill is set to hold a special meeting today to discuss the clusters, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. The chair of the faculty, Mimi V. Chapman, wrote to the UNC System's Board of Governors asking it to give authority to Chapel Hill's chancellor to make decisions about the campus's operating status.

"The presence of clusters should be triggering reconsideration of residential, in-person learning," Chapman wrote. "However, moving to remote instruction cannot be done without your approval."

At Oklahoma State University, a sorority house is under quarantine after 23 members tested positive for COVID, according to The Oklahoman.

Elsewhere in the state, nine football players at the University of Oklahoma tested positive after returning from a break, ESPN reported.

The president of Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, warned students they will be sent home if they do not abide by COVID-related guidelines after hundreds of freshmen gathered for a large outdoor group gathering, Philly Voice reported. Videos showed students failing to abide by social distancing requirements; many were not wearing masks.

Meanwhile, Columbia University and Barnard College both retreated from plans to invite undergraduates back to campus in favor of an all-virtual fall...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/08/17/covid-19-roundup-rubber-hits-road-some-campuses-fall-plans-continue-diverge