AAUP President Calls for Explanation on UNC–Chapel Hill Tenure Delay

AAUP President Todd Wolfson released the following statement:

As a result of public pressure and significant media attention generated by AAUP members’ collective action, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted on June 4 to tenure the remaining thirty-three faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences and professional schools, including the School of Law and the Kenan-Flagler Business School, who had been denied a tenure vote since the May 22 board meeting. The board offered no explanation for this unprecedented large-scale delay, which was expected to violate faculty contracts. It also calls into question the state of academic freedom and faculty governance at North Carolina’s flagship school, which was also the first public university in the United States.

We congratulate these newly tenured professors, UNC–Chapel Hill’s active and growing AAUP chapter, and faculty chair Beth Moracco on their success in scholarship and organizing. 

The thirteen-member UNC–Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, however, has significant work to do to repair the damage to academic freedom and the reputation of the university. Faculty members and their departments, who expected a transparent and honest tenure review, deserve answers to their questions: Why didn’t the board approve these faculty members in March? Why were humanities, social sciences, and professional school faculty targeted? What will be done to ensure this kind of delay does not happen again?

Academic freedom is a bedrock freedom of our university systems, and defending it is the core mission of the AAUP. Tenure allows faculty to teach and do research without fear of losing their jobs because of their speech, publications, or research findings. Tenure provides stability at universities and promotes the advancement and transmission of knowledge. Without a stable tenure system, prestigious universities like UNC–Chapel Hill will no longer recruit the best faculty and researchers and will fail to retain main faculty members.

The AAUP is pleased that these scholars received the tenure they deserve after our membership organized to take action, but questions remain. The AAUP calls on UNC–Chapel Hill’s chancellor and board of trustees to provide a full explanation of why faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, and the Kenan-Flagler Business School did not receive tenure votes according to schedule. In the interest of the public good and the health of UNC–Chapel Hill, we also call on the chancellor and board of trustees to affirm a commitment to the tenure system and academic freedom.