Bill Introduced in Kansas Legislature Would Effectively End Tenure (updated)
A bill introduced into the Kansas State House of Representatives last week would, if made law, make it impossible for state institutions of higher education to award faculty a status that substantially protects their employment, as tenure traditionally does.
Schools could still award “tenure”, according to the bill, but “tenure at postsecondary educational institutions shall not be defined, awarded or recognized as an entitlement, right or property interest in a faculty member’s current, ongoing or future employment by an institution.”
The bill would apply its evisceration of tenure retroactively to any tenured faculty at public institutions of higher education in Kansas.
House Bill 2348 was introduced by Representative Steven K. Howe (Republican) last Friday. A hearing regarding it is scheduled for tomorrow.
Here’s the key text of the bill:
(a) An award of tenure may confer certain benefits, processes or preferences, but tenure shall be discretionary and conditional and shall not, nor shall it be interpreted to, create any entitlement, right or property interest in a faculty member’s current, ongoing or future employment by an institution.
(b) The board of regents and any institution shall not define, award or otherwise recognize tenure as an entitlement, right or property interest in a faculty member’s current, ongoing or future employment by an institution.
(c) No award of tenure by the board of regents or any institution in existence on the effective date of this act shall be considered or deemed an entitlement, right or property interest in a faculty member’s current, ongoing, or future employment by an institution.
(d) Any special benefits, processes or preferences conferred on a faculty member by an institution’s award of tenure can be at any time revoked, limited, altered or otherwise modified by the awarding institution or by the state board of regents.
The full text of the bill is here.
The Kansas Board of Regents in 2021 allowed universities and colleges to suspend tenure protections for a year during the COVID-Pandemic, though I’m informed that at the time, only one school, Emporia State University, developed and adopted the requisite framework for doing so. Emporia State is currently facing a lawsuit from faculty terminated by the school under that framework.
Those with knowledge of Kansas politics who can speak to the likelihood of the bill’s passage by Kansas’ House and Senate are especially welcome to comment. If you’re aware of similar recent bills being introduced in other states, please let us know.
UPDATE (6:20pm): The Kansas Reflector reports:
The bill was introduced… at the behest of Steven Lovett, general counsel at Emporia State University. ESU is embroiled in state and federal court battles tied to the administration’s decision in 2022 to fire 30 tenured or tenure-track professors.
Lovett’s role in drafting or advancing the House bill could be a conflict of interest because passage had the potential to influence his prospects of success as a defendant in the federal case.
On Monday, an ESU spokeswoman Gwen Larson said it was a “surprise to the university” Lovett had the bill introduced in the House. Larson said Lovett took that step as a “private citizen” rather than in his capacity as a university attorney.
Yikes. I teach in Kansas but at a community college–we don’t have tenure so this doesn’t really apply but it’s sending a pretty clear message. The Legislature has tried similar sorts of things in the past that haven’t progressed too far but obviously the political climate has shifted.
so, “run government like a business” isn’t just a motto for efficiency, it’s a mandate to make at-will employment universal in the public sector
“Employment at will” itself being a euphemism for “unemployment at will”.
I think this is likely to pass in the current legislative session, but unlikely to be signed by Laura Kelly. My suspicion is, though, that this will be raised again in 2026, and will likely pass, assuming the Governor’s office changes hands.
Also, the law as written is sort of unclear regarding what “processes” tenure allows. Does it allow the traditional process for dismissal of tenured faculty? Let’s say a university adopted a for-cause only approach to tenure dismissals. Would this violate this statute? Unclear.
It is a curious bill. I’m not a lawyer but I take the language to be intended to forestall lawsuit appealing to the 14th amendment and due process if someone gets fired. I think aside from that a college would be free agree to offer anything they like as tenure but it will all be revokable by the institution or Board of Regents.
Would this also apply to employees at mom and pop places who have said privileges and entitlement to prevent them from being fired even when their actions would deem termination a necessary action no longer protected by it and employers could terminate their employees for not doing their job as they should be? Asking for my spouse who deals with someone who has “tenure” and can’t be fired no matter what they do. The said coworker of his makes things harder on others to do their job or mis-trains new people, only getting in the way and bossing others around, expecting them to have others do their job for them
Don’t the Republicans have enough votes in the legislature to override the governor’s veto?
I think so – I think they have more than 2/3 in both houses. But maybe some Republicans wouldn’t vote to override?
Passage of the bill may not be so likely. Great response by university folks and the Regants rejection of the bill is encouraging too:
https://kansasreflector.com/2025/02/11/kansas-university-leaders-condemn-bill-abolishing-property-rights-of-faculty-tenure/
Yes, our chancellor, showing a spine we had no good reason to believe he actually possessed, came out pretty strongly against.
The “property interest” language probably cannot be applied retroactively. Perhaps for new hires.
The fact that it is included here suggests that existing tenure is prima facie a kind of property, and that this legislation would be a taking. Junior faculty hired in on tenure track lines could make a similar, if weaker argument.
It’s probably not a fight the legislature wants to have, as I’m sure it would end up in court. And anyway, whatever problem they think they’re solving by ditching tenure would resolve itself over time.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-universitys-top-lawyer-is-behind-a-bill-to-weaken-tenure-the-university-had-no-idea