West Virginia University officials suspended a controversial proposal promoting diversity and inclusion guidelines for faculty.
"The provost has decided to suspend work on the revised promotion and tenure document for now," W. Scott Wayne, chair of the faculty senate, told The Washington Times.
The decision came after professors voted 494-221 last month against the "equity minded" revisions to the school's guidelines for faculty appointments, evaluations, promotions, and tenure, The Washington Times reported.
Officials said they hoped to save the proposal, which had already undergone several revisions in the face of criticism.
Suspending the proposal does not prevent it from resurfacing in the future, said Shauna Johnson, WVU director of news communications.
According to Johnson, a faculty committee representing all departments began meeting weekly in February 2021 to recommend updates to the tenure document.
The proposed changes would have added "contributions to recruiting, advising, retaining, and graduating students from historically under-represented groups" to the criteria for hiring and promotions, The Washington Times reported.
A new introduction in the proposal calls it a "moral imperative" for the public research university in Morgantown to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in tenure decisions.
The proposal also would have let administrators flag tenured professors as "unsatisfactory" during annual performance reviews and fire them if they do not complete improvement plans.
University officials insisted the promotion of diversity-based hiring and the firing of tenured faculty in the document were unrelated, reported The Washington Times.
A committee revised the document several times, removing passages that sparked fierce pushback from tenured instructors during feedback sessions and from academic freedom advocates outside the school, The Washington Times reported.
WVU evaluates professors for tenured positions based on their teaching, research, and service work.
In the U.S., tenure has traditionally offered professors protection against being censured or targeted for political reasons.
But that protection has come under increasing pressure in recent years at a handful of campuses that have looked to make it easier to get rid of tenured professors, The Washington Times noted.
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