The vote to "change" the tenure rules yesterday by the Georgia System's Board of Regents is of enormous significance, both for tenure and for academic freedom--for now at state universities (since other states will follow suit if Georgia's change survives legal challenges), but I suspect this will creep into the private universities as well, since it would be a cost-cutter's dream come true: to be able to fire tenured faculty without due process or having to show actual "cause." This article explains the new Georgia rules:
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....
A key change in the new policy adds student success as a category to be evaluated along with teaching and research.
The new "student success" metric seems to be designed to make faculty work more mentoring and advising students, but I'm not sure. (Comments are open for readers with more information about that.) The crucial change, however, is eliminating the "for cause" criterion of dismissal and its associated procedural safeguards, most importantly, faculty peer review.
ADDENDUM: You can see the changed language at pp. 38 ff. of this document.
