Dive Brief:

• Suffolk University trustees have approved a plan to subject all tenured faculty to performance reviews, and professors with poor reviews would be subject to sanctions, including dismissal.
• The Massachusetts conference of the American Association of University Professors condemns the move, saying the Boston-based university is "destroying tenure."
• Suffolk says it is not ending tenure. It says the reviews will simply ensure that the 246 tenured professors at the university keep up their quality of research and teaching.

Dive Insight:

As The Boston Globe reports, about half of private universities have post-tenure reviews. The number of professors in tenured or tenure-track positions has dropped to 24% of all higher education instructors, from 45% in 1975. Professors say performance reviews endanger the protections provided by tenure, including academic freedom and protection from political pressure from the university. New rules that include the performance reviews take effect at Suffolk on July 1. The professors would be reviewed every five years by their dean and provost before giving a rating — that they exceed, meet, partially meet or do not meet expectations. Top-rated professors could receive pay raises or other accolades.