Officials expect debate over university tenure

Posted Sep 14, 2011 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Sep 16, 2011 at 03:18 PM

It seems like this year’s legislative session just ended, but officials are already girding for a possible fight next year over whether university professors should have tenure.

Gov. Rick Scott has been talking a lot about Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas plan, which looks at students as customers and bases faculty pay largely on student evals, though it would limit the number of As and Bs given in each class to prevent professors from using them to gain popularity.

While some panic is rising over what may come in Florida, the State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan seems to be trying to keep the discussion calm by focusing on a new strategic plan for the system. He’ll talk about it at tomorrow’s Board of Governor’s meeting.

It’s tough because Scott hasn’t put out a plan of his own and his statements on this topic are somewhat vague.

He met with the Tampa Tribune’s editorial board on Friday. Here’s part of what he said, courtesy of Tribune political writer William March.

“Take tenure: What’s the purpose? If there’s a logical purpose, we ought to have it. If not, we shouldn’t do it….Who should measure our professors? Should they be measured by the student, the parent, other faculty, somebody else? [In businesses], you have to figure out who’s your customer and how you measure their satisfaction.”

His thoughts on the job of a university: “Probably almost the most important thing is where are the jobs going to be in the future? What percentage of our kids are getting degrees in science and technology and engineering and math? And what percentage or our kids are incurring all this debt and they get out of school, not finding a job?”

Expect Brogan to address some of these questions on Thursday at the meeting in Miami.

Here’s the agenda.