Student Union
- By Pete Musto
Lawmakers Take Aim at Tenure
Tenure, or guaranteeing a college professor a job for life, is under fire in some U.S. states.
A lawmaker in Missouri, Rick Brattin, has proposed a law that would ban tenure at public universities in Missouri after January 1, 2018. Similar initiatives are underway in Wisconsin and Iowa.
Brattin said he feels the costs of higher education in the U.S. have gotten too high. He calls tenure at public universities “un-American” and an unnecessary cost to taxpayers.
“You cannot tell me that every tenured professor is absolutely doing everything to the fullest extent,” said Brattin, a Republican state representative in Missouri. “So to have a system in place that protects that person with a guaranteed lifetime employment, it works against itself.”
Opponents say ending tenure would cut jobs in higher education and reduce teaching quality.
“Doing away with tenure and cutting state support is a job killer in higher education,” said University of Missouri biology professor Mannie Liscum in a letter to state legislators. “Killing higher education is shortsighted for a state, because our innovation declines, our ability to compete declines and our respect declines."
The track to tenure is long and laborious, and not even half of all college professors achieve tenure. College teachers spend seven or more years proving their teaching abilities and the value of their research. That rank gives them job security and academic protection until they voluntarily retire.
“What people fail to understand is that tenure is one of the important fortifications of American democracy, in that in the areas of arts and sciences and literature, universities are a bastion for intellectual freedom," Joe Gorton, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Northern Iowa, told Inside Higher Education. "When tenure ends, the politically powerful or economic elite can control what goes on in universities.”
Blogger and educator John Warner, who penned a column titled, "End Tenure, Before It's Too Late," argues that tenure has lost its way by creating a two-tiered system in higher ed. Only professors with tenure enjoy protection on academic freedom, he writes.
"We all agree tenure is important, maybe even necessary, except that somewhere around half of all faculty now don’t have access to tenure," wrote blogger John Warner in Inside Higher Education, "and therefore do not have those protections."
The National Education Association (NEA) agrees that tenure needs revision.
"Colleges and universities also need to do a better job of setting concrete goals, evaluating successes and failures, and talking plainly to the public about them," it wrote on its website. "Professors who have tenure, just like anyone else, need to be held accountable for their performance."
The "real reason" legislators want to end tenure, the NEA argues, is to save money. "And the real effect is to lower standards."
States generally spend 13 percent of their total budget on higher education, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (About 25 percent goes to elementary and secondary education.) Revenue for colleges is raised through tuition, fees and donations.
"When a tenured professor retires or a new position is created, too often the new position is not put on the tenure track. ... Part-time faculty are not unqualified, but they are exploited. Most part-time faculty earn very low 'per course' salaries and few, if any, benefits."
Part-time faculty and adjuncts cannot advise students or contribute adequately if they are employed in various locations, the NEA says. It pointed to a national survey that said "one half of part-time faculty do not hold office hours or meet with students outside the classroom."
A paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2013 -- "Are Tenured Track Professors Better Teachers?" -- reported that 57 percent of faculty were tenured. By 2009, that number had dropped to 30 percent.
Joerg Tiede, who oversees academic freedom and tenure issues for the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), points to the growing number of administrators and their increased salaries as another reason why state legislators want to decrease tenured professors and their salaries.
A 2013 survey of administrators' salaries by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA) showed that the chief executive officer (CEO) of a university system is paid an average of $388,000. For a CEO at a single institution within a campus system, the pay was on average $290,000.
Tenure became a practice after World War Two, but may professors lost their jobs in the 1950s and ‘60s after expressing political beliefs. The U.S. Supreme Court boosted tenure in 1972 as a legally binding contract between a teacher and her or his institution that requires a lengthy and complex process to break.
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Lily Meskers faced an unexpected choice in the lead-up to the first major election she can vote in.
The 19-year-old University of Montana sprinter was among college athletes in the state who received an inquiry from Montana Together asking if she was interested in a name, image and likeness deal to support Sen. Jon Tester, a three-term Democrat seeking re-election. The group, which is not affiliated with the Tester campaign, offered from $400 to $2,400 to athletes willing to produce video endorsements.
Meskers, who is from Colorado but registered to vote in Montana, decided against the deal because she disagrees with Tester's votes on legislation involving transgender athletes in sports.
"I was like, OK, I believe that this is a political move to try to gain back some voters that he might have lost," Meskers said. "And me being a female student-athlete myself, I was not going to give my endorsement to someone who I felt didn't have the same support for me."
Professional athletes such as LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry have taken high-profile stances on hot-button topics and political campaigns in recent years, but college athletes are far less outspoken — even if money is available, according to experts in the NIL field. Being outwardly political can reflect on their school or endanger potential endorsement deals from brands that don't want controversy. It can certainly establish a public image for an athlete — for better or for worse — or lead to tensions with teammates and coaches who might not feel the same way.
There are examples of political activism by college athletes: A Texas Tech kicker revealed his support for former President Donald Trump on a shirt under his uniform at a game last week and a handful of Nebraska athletes a few days ago teamed up in a campaign ad against an abortion measure on the Tuesday's ballot.
Still, such steps are considered rare.
"It can be viewed as risky and there may be people telling them just don't even take that chance because they haven't made it yet," said Lauren Walsh, who started a sports branding agency 15 years ago. She said there is often too much to lose for themselves, their handlers and in some cases, their families.
"And these individuals still have to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives, even those that do end up getting drafted," she added.
College coaches are not always as reticent. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has used social media to make it clear he does not support Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in next week's presidential election. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy once caused a stir with a star player for wearing a shirt promoting a far-right news outlet.
Blake Lawrence, co-founder of the NIL platform Opendorse, noted that this is the first presidential election in the NIL era, which began in July 2021. He said athletes are flocking to opportunities to help increase voter turnout in the 18-to-24 age demographic, adding that one of his company's partners has had 86 athletes post social media messages encouraging turnout through the first half of the week.
He said athletes are shying away from endorsing specific candidates or causes that are considered partisan.
"Student-athletes are, for the most part, still developing their confidence in endorsing any type of product or service," he said. "So if they are hesitant to put their weight behind supporting a local restaurant or an e-commerce product, then they are certainly going to be hesitant to use their social channels in a political way."
Giving athletes a voice
Many college athletes have opted to focus on drumming up turnout in a non-partisan manner or simply using their platforms to take stands that are not directly political in nature. Some of those efforts can be found in battleground states.
A progressive group called NextGen America said it had signed players in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia to encourage voting among young people. Another organization, The Team, said it prepped 27 college athletes in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan to lead volunteer voter participation opportunities for students. The organization also said it got more than 625 coaches to sign a nonpartisan pledge to get their athletes registered to vote.
The Team's executive director is Joe Kennedy, a former coach who coordinated championship visits and other sporting events at the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. In early October, it hosted a Zoom event during which panelists such as NCAA President Charlie Baker and WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Natasha Cloud gave college athletes advice about using their platforms on campus.
In its early days, The Team seized upon momentum from the record turnout seen in the 2020 election. The NCAA that year said Division I athletes could have Election Day off from practice and play to vote. Lisa Kay Solomon, founder of the All Vote No Play campaign, said even if the athletes don't immediately take stands on controversial issues, it's important for them to learn how.
"It is a lot to ask our young people to feel capable and confident on skills they've never had a chance to practice," Solomon said. "We have to model what it means to practice taking risks, practice standing up for yourself, practice pausing to think about what are the values that you care about — not what social media is feeding into your brain, but what do you care about and how do you express that? And how do you do it in a way that honors the kind of future that you want to be a part of?"
Shut up and play?
Two years ago, Tennessee-Martin quarterback Dresser Winn said he would support a candidate in a local district attorney general race in what experts said was very likely the first political NIL deal by a college athlete.
There have been very few since.
The public criticism and fallout for athletes who speak out on politics or social issue can be sharp. Kaepernick, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, hasn't played in an NFL game since January 2017, not long after he began kneeling during the national anthem at games.
Meskers, the Montana sprinter, said political endorsements through NIL deals could create problems for athletes and their schools.
"I just think that NIL is going to run into a lot of trouble and a lot of struggles if they continue to let athletes do political endorsements," she said. "I just think it's messy. But I stand by NIL as a whole. I think it's really hard as a student athlete to create a financial income and support yourself."
Walsh said it's easier for wealthy and veteran stars like James and Ogwumike to take stands. James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, started More Than a Vote — an organization with a mission to "educate, energize and protect Black voters" — in 2020. He has passed the leadership to Ogwumike, who just finished her 13th year in the WNBA and also is the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association. More than a Vote is focused on women's rights and reproductive freedom this year.
"They have very established brands," Walsh said. "They know who they are and they know what their political stance is. They know that they have a really strong following that -- there's always going to be haters, but they're also always going to have that strong following of people who listen to everything that they have to say."
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor at Emory University who teaches African American politics, also said it is rare that a college athlete would make a significant impact with a political stand simply because they tend to have a more regional platform than national. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Eminem are better at increasing turnout than championing candidates.
"They are certainly very beneficial in helping to drive up turnout among their fans," Gillespie said. "The data is less conclusive about whether or not they're persuasive – are they the ones who are going to persuade you to vote for a particular candidate?"
Athletes as influencers
Still, campaigns know young voters are critical this election cycle, and athletes offer an effective and familiar voice to reach them.
Political and social topics are not often broached, but this week six Nebraska athletes — five softball players and a volleyball player — appeared in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women and Children involving two initiatives about abortion laws on Tuesday's ballot.
The female athletes backed Initiative 434, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions. Star softball player Jordy Bahl said on social media that the athletes were not paid.
A University of Montana spokesperson said two athletes initially agreed to take part in the NIL deal backing Tester. The school said one withdrew and the other declined to be interviewed.
For Meskers, deciding against the offer boiled down to Tester twice voting against proposals to bar federal funds from going to schools that allow transgender athletes to play women's sports, a prominent GOP campaign topic. Tester's campaign said the proposals were amendments to government spending packages, and he didn't want to play a role in derailing them as government shutdowns loomed.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," a Tester spokesperson said. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
Meskers said she believes using influence as college athletes is good and she is in favor of NIL. She just doesn't think the two should mix specifically for supporting candidates.
"I think especially as student athletes, we do have such a big voice and we do have a platform to use," she said. "So I think if you're encouraging people to do their civic duties and get up and go (vote), I think that's a great thing."
