The 50-State Comparison on teacher employment contract policies provides a national comparison of teacher employment contract policies in all states. All of the information was gathered from and focused on state statutes and regulations. State case law was also utilized for metrics related to collective bargaining. Data collection focused…

The 50-State Comparison on teacher employment contract policies provides a national comparison of teacher employment contract policies in all states. All of the information was gathered from and focused on state statutes and regulations. State case law was also utilized for metrics related to collective bargaining. Data collection focused…

In recent decades, the employment model in higher education has markedly changed. Tenure-track faculty now represent just about 30 percent of the instructional faculty across all non-profit institutions. Meanwhile, most faculty members who provide instruction at colleges and universities today are non-tenure-track faculty, the majority of them…

Billy Gillispie, like many college basketball coaches, was hired--and fired--in a hurry. But the contract negotiations that dragged on for nearly two years while he coached the University of Kentucky's men's basketball team showed little of the same urgency that defined his entrance and exit. Mr. Gillispie worked for Kentucky under a memorandum of…

Boston University (Massachusetts) has devised an alternative form of faculty-tenure appointment offering a six-year probationary period, traditional performance and peer-review standards, salary premium from the first day of employment, ten-year renewable contract with one-year notice, same privileges and voting status as traditionally tenured…

Professors and the Florida State Board of Regents have agreed to experiment with an alternative to tenure at Florida Gulf Coast University, scheduled to open in 1997. Administrators will have the option of whether to offer new professors tenure or multi-year contracts. The arrangement is a compromise between elimination of tenure and the contract…

Attempts to write definitely on public school administrators' rights to continuing employment are risky because states vary so widely in their statutes. There is not much litigation about administrators' rights because in most states administrators are not covered by the same tenure laws that protect teacher employment. Statutory law in some…

Tenured faculty are normally terminated only for just cause. In "Milbouer v. Keppler," however, an Idaho district court upheld faculty members' discharge when Boise State University declared a financial exigency. Examination shows that this definition of financial exigency derived from budget reductions that affected small program…

While tenure has its disadvantages, far more would be lost than gained by reducing or abandoning the tenure system. Strategies are available to both safeguard against tenure abuse and increase institutional flexibility by reducing the proportion of tenured appointments, without endangering the traditional role of the institution. (Author/MSE)

Explores the present declining status of tenure and its role in job security. Urges administrators to seek their own creative solutions to the problem of job security. Proposes a "mission contract," a written agreement defining the administrator's task in terms of time, resources, salary, and standards of success and failure. Speech presented at…

Explores what admissions officers are and what they are not. Urges members of the admissions staff to seek a clear definition of conditions of employment and to assume responsibility for securing acceptance of those definitions. In lieu of tenure, Giffin suggests job security and due process. Speech presented at 30th Annual NACAC Conference, New…

Dr. Frederick L. Hipp, Executive Director of the New Jersey Education Association, a state teachers union, and Mrs. Linda Albert, Vice President for Legislation of the New Jersey School Boards Association, answer some crucial questions about teacher tenure. (Editor)

In 1969 Hampshire College in Massachusetts explore the "contract for service," by which faculty appointments are made for three-to-seven-year terms. Experience to date has shown low turnover, with fewer opportunities but better retention for young faculty. The relationship of the contract system to academic freedom is not yet tested.…

A revamping of the operation of the current academic labor market by drawing upon the system found in professional sports is suggested. To stimulate thought, it is proposed that rules governing free agency, professor reservation, first refusal, trading, and salary arbitration be applied to higher education to replace current, outdated procedures.…

Flexible tenure contracts are proposed as an alternative to the current college faculty tenure system. Such a contract would make more explicit, and potentially more varied, the contributions expected of the candidate, but avoid the tenure-track/non-tenure-track distinction. It could also help resolve conflicts over the relative weights to be…