The Arch on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia Board of Regents Wednesday approved controversial changes in tenure policies at 25 of the system’s 26 colleges and universities despite opposition from many professors.
The changes will replace a tenure system that allows professors to be fired only for a specific cause following a thorough peer review process with a new system that permits professors to be dismissed if they fail to take corrective steps following two consecutive subpar reviews.
The changes in post-tenure review, which will apply to all system schools except Georgia Gwinnett College, stem from a working group formed in September of last year that reviewed the current policy and submitted recommendations to the regents in June.
“The goal of the changes they recommended is to support career development for all faculty as well as ensure accountability and continued strong performance from faculty members after they have achieved tenure,” the regents wrote in a prepared statement.
A key change in the new policy adds student success as a category to be evaluated along with teaching and research.
“Student success remains a top priority for the university system,” the regents wrote. “This process intends to strengthen that commitment among faculty throughout their career while also recognizing how faculty already deepen student learning and engagement through activities both inside and outside the classroom.”
But representatives of the system’s faculty warn the new tenure policy will make it easier to dismiss professors without due process. A report released by the working group found that 96% of professors who go through the tenure review process receive positive reviews.
Matthew Boedy, president of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said the policy appears aimed at research professors.
“The board thinks these people aren’t doing enough,” said Boedy, an associate professor at the University of North Georgia. “They’re giving us tenure in name only … to suggest that somehow we’re not pulling our weight.”
About 1,500 professors across the university system signed a petition opposing the changes ahead of Wednesday’s vote. The regents approved the changes without discussion.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is expected to adopt changes in the tenure system Wednesday strongly opposed by many of the system’s faculty members.
“This is the death of tenure and due process in Georgia,” Matthew Boedy, president of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said Tuesday after the board’s Academic Affairs Committee unanimously approved the changes during a meeting on the campus of Georgia Tech and referred them to the full board for action. “They are removing faculty peer review and putting it in the hands of the administration.”
Faculty members at some university system campuses have run afoul with administrators in recent week over the system’s policy to make mask wearing in classrooms and other indoor spaces voluntary rather than mandatory. Individual teachers have vowed to impose mask mandates on students and staff inside their classrooms.
But Boedy said the dispute over tenure goes beyond concerns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
“COVID is an opportunity to do this,” he said. “[But] I don’t think it’s directly related.”
The dispute dates back to September of last year when then-system Chancellor Steve Wrigley formed a committee to examine policies for post-tenure review of faculty members at 25 of the 26 system campuses with tenure systems, all of the schools except Georgia Gwinnett College.
Surveys were sent to gather input from provosts at the 25 campuses and from faculty members and administrators with tenure.
The committee concluded that the current system gives peers a chance to review and comment on their colleagues’ performance and lets tenured faculty compare their performance with the goals they’ve set.
“On the less positive side, PTR (post-tenure review) has substantial direct and indirect costs in terms of faculty, staff, and administrator time,” the committee wrote in a report submitted to the regents last June.
“For some, the required documentation is perceived as onerous to compile. Finally, in the current form, very few low-performing faculty members are identified and remediated during the PTR process.”
According to the report, of 3,122 professors who went through post-tenure review, 3,005 – or 96% – received a positive review.
“They think it is too easy to get tenure and too easy to keep it,” Boedy said.
Boedy said the key change in the new policy would get rid of the current hearing process for professors who fail to get tenure and put decisions in the hands of a few administrators.
About 1,500 university system faculty members have signed a petition opposing the changes to post-tenure review.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) also is vowing to launch an investigation if the regents adopted the changes.
“At most reputable institutions of higher education, tenured professors can be dismissed only for reasons related to professional fitness and only after a hearing before a faculty body,” AAUP President Irene Mulvey wrote in a prepared statement.
“In such a hearing, the administration must make its case that the faculty member’s conduct or performance warranted dismissal. The USG board-proposed policy unlinks this procedure, commonly referred to as academic due process, from post-tenure review, thereby undermining tenure and academic freedom.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Former Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Tuesday for fraud and money laundering.
A federal indictment charged Beck with 37 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and tax fraud for embezzling more than $2.5 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association in Suwanee. He served as the association’s general manager of operations before being elected insurance commissioner in 2018.
Beck, 60, a Republican, didn’t serve long before Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him after the indictment was handed down in May 2019. However, he continued to receive his salary of $195,000 a year while on suspension.
The governor subsequently appointed Doraville Police Chief John King to replace Beck. King will be seeking a full four-year term next year.
While Beck worked for the Georgia Underwriting Association, he also maintained controlling financial interests in two businesses: Creative Consultants and the Georgia Christian Coalition. Beginning in 2013, Beck talked four associates into forming four separate businesses that supposedly supplied necessary services, including residential property inspections and water damage mitigation, to the underwriting association.
Then, through an elaborate system of fraudulent invoicing, Beck approved substantial payments to the four companies. He then prepared fraudulent invoices from Creative Consultants and the Georgia Christian Coalition for services that were never performed.
“Beck’s actions were full of greed and selfishness as he took complete advantage of his employer and friends who held him in a high position of trust,” said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta office. “This sentencing should serve as a warning that no matter how elaborate a scheme, the FBI and our partners will use all resources necessary to hold deceitful individuals accountable for their actions and bring them to justice.”
Beck has remained free on bail. However, he has been mostly confined to his home in Carrollton.
The prosecution had sought a 10-year prison sentence for Beck. U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen sentenced him to serve a sentence of 87 months.
Beck also was ordered to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution, forfeit more than $426,000, two pieces of real property and a $2 million personal forfeiture money judgment.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A longtime telecom lobbyist at the Georgia Capitol is joining Georgia Electric Membership Corp. (EMC).
Kevin Curtin will become the utility’s senior vice president of government relations on Oct. 20. He will represent the state’s 41 EMCs before the General Assembly, the Georgia Public Service Commission, Congress and state and federal agencies.
Curtin brings vast experience in public and government affairs as well as customer relations and public relations from more than 22 years with AT&T and BellSouth.
“We’re very pleased to welcome someone of Kevin’s caliber who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to advocate for EMCs across Georgia and to educate lawmakers on important issues to co-ops and their members,” Georgia EMC President/CEO Dennis Chastain said.
Most recently, Curtin was AT&T’s assistant vice president for legislative affairs, where he served as the company’s chief lobbyist before the General Assembly and the executive branch of state government. He also managed the company’s home state relationships for Georgia’s congressional delegation.
“I’m looking forward to this next chapter and working closely with EMCs across the state to identify and prioritize topics of concern and ensure their continued ability to provide Georgians safe, affordable, and reliable electricity and related services,” Curtin said.
Prior to BellSouth’s merger with AT&T in the mid-2000s, Curtin served in a number of leadership positions including director of public affairs and economic development, director of corporate communications and regional manager of external affairs in Savannah.
Before that, he held government relations, public affairs and public relations positions with Georgia’s Commissioner of Insurance, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, the Alliance of American Insurers and the Georgia Association of Health Plans.
Curtin is a member of the board of directors of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, where he currently chairs the chamber’s Political Affairs Council.
Curtin, who grew up in Dunwoody, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business and a master’s degree from Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Three child advocacy organizations in Georgia are launching an ad campaign encouraging both adults and children to wear masks to discourage the spread of COVID-19.
A series of public service announcements set to begin airing Tuesday features children too young to be vaccinated talking about adults in their lives – including teachers and school bus drivers – who are not able to take care of them due to illness.
“The adults charged with caring for our children are still getting sick,” said Dr. Erica Fener Sitkoff, executive director of Voices for Georgia’s Children. “We know some school districts are running double bus routes because bus drivers are ill. We know central office staff in some districts are subbing in classrooms because they can’t find enough substitutes to cover sick teachers.
“Our children count on these people to get them to school, teach them at school, and get them home safely. If the adults in a child’s life are too ill to care of them, that puts children’s safety at risk.”
Voices for Georgia’s Children is being joined in the “Mask Up for Kids” campaign by the state chapter of the American Academy for Pediatrics and PARTNERS for Equity in Child and Adolescent Health.
“Wearing a mask isn’t fun,” said Dr. Veda Johnson of PARTNERS for Equity in Child and Adolescent Health. “It can be cumbersome and hot. But evidence shows it is a primary way to stop the spread of COVID-19 for children too young to be vaccinated.”
The public service announcements will run statewide on broadcast television as well as digital and social media.
Cases of COVID-19 have been coming down in Georgia in recent weeks after a summer surge. Nearly 1.25 million Georgians have been diagnosed with the virus since the coronavirus pandemic began in March of last year.
More than 82,000 Georgians have been hospitalized with COVID-19. The virus has been responsible for 27,142 confirmed or probable deaths.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
