ACTC faculty opposes tenure policy

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May 6, 2009

KCTCS board votes to eliminate policy

By MIKE JAMES The Daily Independent Wed May 06, 2009, 12:22 AM EDT

ASHLAND — Ashland Community and Technical College faculty overwhelmingly voted no confidence in the Kentucky Community and Technical College Board of Regents on Tuesday.

The vote comes less than a month after the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Board of Regents voted to eliminate tenure for newly hired faculty after July 1, a step that angered many professors.

Faculty also oppose elimination of paid post-retirement health insurance for new hires.

Sixty-six voted in favor of the resolution, six against it and three abstained, said Barbara Ashley, a professor at Jefferson Community and Technical College and executive director of the Faculty/Staff Alliance.

The alliance is an association of faculty at most of the 16 KCTCS campuses.

Including ACTC, faculty at 12 of the 16 KCTCS colleges have voted no confidence in the regents, all of them with large majorities.

The votes are unprecedented, Ashley said.

“It simply has not happened in the history of the commonwealth,” she said. “We hope the board will pay attention to what a vote of no confidence is. It’s not something we take lightly.”

Faculty believe elimination of tenure will make it more difficult for the colleges to attract qualified instructors, Ashley said. Tenure has been an important tool in attracting applicants to a system with salaries below the average of surrounding states, she said.

Eliminating tenure was meant to maximize flexibility in staffing academic programs that change with workforce needs.

But KCTCS already has that flexibility because it can hire adjunct, or part-time, professors, Ashley said.

The step also is a blow to academic freedom, she said.

Ashland faculty initially had planned to vote “in opposition” to the tenure decision, Matt Onion, library director at ACTC, said. The no-confidence vote represents a much harder-edged position.

“People are pretty upset,” Onion said.

Faculty in Ashland are concerned that the college won’t be able to hire quality professors, he said. “With no tenure track, you don’t get much loyalty.”

Regents have shown no sign of backing down and the next step is to take the matter to lawmakers, Onion said. The faculty will lobby to get legislation to restore tenure, he said.

Spokespersons for ACTC and KCTCS referred queries to Richard Bean, board of regents chairman, who did not return calls to his cell and home phone numbers before publication of this story.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.

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