One of the bills that I co-signed this year is LB 1064, a bill to eliminate tenure at the University of Nebraska, the Nebraska State College system, and Nebraska’s community colleges. This is a movement which is picking up steam around the country. Several other states have introduced similar legislation including, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas.

While LB 1064 does not strip current faculty members of their tenured status, the bill would prevent future hires from obtaining tenure and it directs the governing boards over our state’s colleges and universities to write and adopt new employment policies which would ultimately promote education and the free expression of ideas. The new employment policies would establish acceptable grounds for the termination of faculty, minimum standards of good practice, standards for discipline, and procedures for dismissal.

It is no secret how some of our nation’s most prestigious universities, such as Harvard University, have had to remove their presidents due the mishandling of antisemitic protests on their campuses and other reasons. Besides allowing unruly antisemitic protests, Harvard University President, Claudine Gay, was accused of 50 counts of plagiarism by the Washington Free Beacon and the New York Post. Most recently, Shirley Greene, an administrator for the Harvard Extension School, has been accused of committing 42 instances of plagiarism in her 2008 dissertation. Why do we allow substandard academic scholars to lead our colleges and universities?

College education in American has been deteriorating. Jonathan Turley, an attorney who teaches at George Washington University Law School, recently posted on X that “The mob has become the measure for righteous rage for many in higher education. Vandalism and attacking art have now become part of what is portrayed as a healthy and productive dialogue.” Unfortunately, this is exactly what higher education in America has so often devolved into, and this kind of behavior has reached Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska has had its own share of problems in recent years with bad behavior. On August 25, 2017 English graduate teaching assistant, Courtney Lawton, harassed Kaitlyn Mullen as she recruited for Turning Point USA near the Student Union at UNL. Then, UNL Sociology Professor, Patricia Wonch Hill, was arrested in Virginia for throwing fake blood on the home of Chris Cox, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. Then, she was cited for painting googly eyes on a campaign sign for Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. Finally, the University of Nebraska system was successfully sued last year after the University’s Fee Allocation Committee denied a $1,500 request by Ratio Christi, a Christian organization, to bring back the former UNL philosophy professor, Robert Audi, as a speaker for their group.

Many American colleges and universities have been shutting down dissenting opinions by conservative students. The American Bar Association has recognized this problem, so this month they issued new rules for their associated law schools. The new rules for the law schools will include policies which “protect academic freedom” and “encourage and support the free expression of ideas.”

Besides the looney behavior of activist professors, it is no secret how classes often get taught by student teaching assistants and research assistants. Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City, the primary sponsor of the bill, stated in his opening remarks during the public hearing on February 13 saying, “…I hear stories of professors who have tenure, brag about how little work they put in or how few hours they show up to teach classes.” No other job in the real world would ever pay an employee to not show up for work or to do no work at all.

Nebraska’s colleges and universities need to be held accountable. The University of Nebraska, for example, is a land grant university. This means that the University of Nebraska System is owned and operated by the citizens of Nebraska. All too often, professors and administrators who are embroiled in university strife believe they are free to do whatever they want. Removing tenure is the first step towards changing the culture of our colleges and universities so that education and the free expression of ideas can once again be restored as the norm at our colleges and universities.