The AHA has signed on to a letter from the Alliance for Higher Education to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in response to Governor Kevin Stitt’s executive order regarding university tenure. The order requests that the regents gut tenure protections at Oklahoma’s research universities and eliminate them entirely at regional universities and community colleges.
The Alliance’s letter corrects misconceptions about tenure and defends its importance for academic freedom: “Executive Order 2026-07 calls for academic excellence while it seeks to limit the very pillars that allow knowledge generation, innovation, and competitiveness to thrive: the freedom to explore controversial ideas and cutting-edge research without the fear of dismissal based on political and institutional whims.”