Iowa public universities see decline in tenured faculty

IOWA CITY - The total number of tenured faculty at Iowa's public universities has dropped over the past decade - even while total enrollment has increased.

Over the last year, according to a new Board of Regents report scheduled for discussion next week, the number of total tenured faculty across the three campuses is down by 55; the number of tenure-track faculty dropped by 20; and the number of non-tenure-track faculty rose by 101.

The report comes on the heels of a Legislative session during which one lawmaker introduced a bill looking to abolish tenure on the public universities, another offered a proposal that would have required political-party balance among faculty on the state campuses and others lobbed proposals attacking faculty free speech and thought.

Although none of those bills gained traction, the GOP-controlled Legislature leveled significant blows to state appropriations for the Board of Regents in response to budget shortfalls and downgraded revenue projections.

A statewide $117.8 million de-appropriations bill passed in January took $20.8 million back from the regents in the current budget year. And Gov. Terry Branstad, along with lawmakers in both the House and Senate, have further slashed future funding for the universities.

Just this week, the Legislature passed a $908.4 million education budget for 2018 that cuts spending on regent universities by millions and ends funding for a University of Iowa-based flood center and an Iowa State University-based sustainable agriculture center.

Joe Gorton, a University of Northern Iowa professor and president of that campus' faculty union, said he and his colleagues have noticed the losses in tenure and tenure-track positions, and many link it back to losses in state support.

'This is absolutely a product of Gov. Branstad and the conservative members of the legislature defunding public higher education,” Gorton said. 'That's all there is to it. And the implications of this is we're going to have fewer experienced faculty on campus who have solid teaching records and research backgrounds.”

University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld has been outspoken in his support for tenure and the need to bring more top-quality faculty to campus. Neither he nor other UI administrators could be reached by The Gazette on Wednesday for comment.

The board report made public this week shows total faculty numbers across the three campuses have inched up over the years. In the 2016-17 academic year, the total faculty tally across the three campuses reached 5,931 - an increase of 26 from last year. Compared with the 2006-07 academic year, this term's total is up by 776.

Meanwhile, enrollment over the past decade has increased from 67,701 in fall 2006to 81,899 - an increase of 14,198. And, despite those total faculty increases, tenured faculty numbers have dropped. The universities reported a total of 2,740 tenured faculty in 2006, compared with 2,590 in the current year.

The University of Iowa, specifically, reported 1,179 tenured faculty in 2016-17 - compared with 1,240 in 2014-15 and 1,293 in 2005-06. Its tenure-track totals also have dropped over the past decade, while its non-tenure-track totals have swelled from 919 to 1,675.

Iowa State and UNI have seen similar trends, although they've not been as dramatic.

The Board of Regents report warns about risks involved in having too many tenured faculty members. Citing a Commission on Academic Tenure, it asserts that excessive tenure can 'diminish opportunities for the recruitment and promotion of an increased number of women and members of minority groups.”

That's why, according to the board report, an institution should provide 'close oversight” when more than one-half to two-thirds of its faculty is tenured.

In the 2016-17 year, according to the report, a 'significant” number of departments across the regent universities reported 70 percent or more of their tenure-eligible faculty had tenure.

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