Tenure bill withdrawn
Published Feb. 18, 2005
The issue of professors' tenure came to the General Assembly floor this month.
Rep. Mark Wright, R-Springfield, sponsored House Bill 432, then withdrew the bill earlier this week.
"Initially, it was not my ultimate goal to eliminate tenure in this state," Wright said. "I wanted to start a discussion with the academic community to come up with ways we can revise the tenure laws."
Wright said he has one main problem with tenured professors.
"They can say anything they want and not be held accountable," he said. Professors "ought to be held accountable because they take public tax dollars. It doesn't mean I'm trying to stifle what they're doing."
Faculty Council member Eddie Adelstein said the idea of professors abusing tenure has little merit.
Less than two percent of tenured professors abuse their status, he said.
"The gains of academic freedom are so great," Adelstein said. "That's a small price to pay for academic freedom."
Wright cited the case of Harris Mirkin, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mirkin caused controversy when he said pedophilia is not necessarily evil.
Adelstein said the bill would limit free speech in Missouri universities.
"This is someone who really doesn't get it," Adelstein said. "It is a punitive gesture."
Adelstein said advocates of ending tenure have limited knowledge of universities.
"We should be proudly encouraging free thought," Adelstein said. "The university is a place where people believe they can pursue their dreams and influence people through knowledge."
Despite withdrawing the bill, Wright said he plans to introduce another tenure-related bill soon.
Columbia Rep. Jeff Harris, the House minority floor leader, said the General Assembly has no business dealing with tenure.
"Apparently, there is a representative who wants the legislature to meddle in the tenure system — a system that has worked fairly well for quite a long time," Harris said. "I believe those decisions are best left to the universities."
Adelstein, a longtime proponent of the benefits of tenure, wrote an opinion piece for The Maneater in 2001 speaking out against then-UM system President Manuel Pacheco's efforts to institute post-tenure review.
In his piece, Adelstein listed tenure next to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as reasons America is the greatest nation on Earth.
Adelstein said there are about 1,000 tenured faculty members and about 600 non-tenured faculty members. He said this represents a shift since 1974, when there were almost 1,400 tenured positions.
Harris said tenured positions at Southwest Missouri State University, the main university in Wright's district, amount to about 65 percent.
