So Much for Job Security

The Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana school system voted on Friday to make it easier for universities to fire faculty members, even those with tenure, says The Chronicle of Higher Education's Audrey Williams June. The officials say the new rules will help the university system be more flexible when it comes to budgets, but professors say the rules will negate the point of tenure — job security — and make the universities unattractive to job seekers, June reports. Under the new rules, tenured professors will be given two academic semesters' notice if their jobs are being terminated because their programs are being shut down. Tenure-track professors will receive three months' notice, and non-tenured faculty could be fired with as little as one month's warning, June adds.