A Kentucky Senate committee passed a bill Thursday that would open the door for public colleges and universities to fire staff and educators for a wider range of reasons – even employees with tenure.
Since House Bill 490 had two readings in the state Senate before it was heard by the chamber’s education committee, it could receive a vote as early as Friday that would send it to the governor’s desk.
At Thursday’s Senate education committee hearing, the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Aaron Thompson, of Russell, called the legislation a “fiscal responsibility” measure that would make policies allowing universities to fire educators for “legitimate financial reasons” consistent across all Kentucky public higher education institutions.
“House Bill 490 gives these boards an additional tool in their toolbox to be a good steward for each institution's future, their students and for the taxpayer,” Thompson said.
The measure requires the governing boards at Kentucky public universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to establish a process outlining how school staff members and educators – including those with tenure – could be fired for “bona fide” financial reasons, including, but not limited to:
- Financial exigency (when a university formally declares a state of financial distress that impacts the school’s ability to sustain core functions)
- Low enrollment in a particular program or major, and
- “Misalignment of revenue and costs” in a particular college, department, program or major
These policies would require faculty members to receive written notice at least 30 days before their termination stating the reason for their removal. Impacted faculty members would also have a chance to respond to the governing board about their termination.
At Thursday’s education committee meeting, Lexington Democratic Sen. Reginald Thomas questioned whether the bill was necessary, saying that all of Kentucky’s state universities already have policies in place that allow them to fire tenured faculty in times of financial exigency.
United Campus Workers of Kentucky opposes the measure, arguing it undermines tenure job protections that the status typically affords. Murray State University President Ron Patterson has previously spoken against the measure, saying at a February MSU board of regents meeting that HB 490 could make it “more difficult to recruit high quality faculty.”
Gerald Nachtwey chairs UCW-Kentucky’s steering committee and also teaches English literature at Eastern Kentucky University. He told lawmakers at the Senate committee meeting that public colleges and universities are meant to help improve the lives of Kentuckians through education, and that the decision to potentially eliminate faculty positions should not be determined by the profitability of their majors or programs.
“Rather than solving any problems or filling in any procedural gaps, I believe this legislation will create new ones by allowing the long standing structures of our public colleges and universities to be dismantled at the whims of the market,” Nachtwey said. “If the bill is passed, I envision a future in which degree programs that have been taught for decades will be eliminated in favor of certifications and credentials for money-making occupations that, in our current economy, are likely to be obsolete in five years.”
Dan Fries, an assistant professor on a tenure track in the University of Kentucky’s mechanical and aerospace engineering department, told senators that the measure would weaken tenure protections and infringe on tenured faculty members’ abilities to perform critical research.
However, Kentucky Student Rights Coalition executive director Michael Frazier pushed back on this, arguing that the measure doesn’t limit academic freedom.
“Nothing in this bill regulates what professors teach, research or say in the classroom. Those protections remain intact. Instead, this bill addresses governance, ensuring universities can responsibly manage programs, budgets and performance,” Frazier said.
With a GOP majority in both the state House and Senate, Republicans in Kentucky’s General Assembly have enough members to override any veto from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. The last two days of the General Assembly – which will be in mid-April – are set aside to give the chambers the opportunity to override any vetoes that the governor issues. Kentucky’s legislature will be in a veto recess from April 2 through 13.
If HB 490 is enacted into law, university and KCTCS governing boards would have to have policies establishing processes for employee termination for “bona fide” financial reasons by Oct. 1.
