Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Sunny, still hot. 96-97. ☀️

We received 213 votes on the Wednesday poll, “Would you pay more for beef raised in Oklahoma rather than buy cheaper imported beef?”

By Andrea Eger, Oklahoma Watch
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Gov. Kevin Stitt’s decree ending faculty tenure is already costing regional universities top-choice hires and other applicants, making it harder for schools in remote locations to attract academic talent.

State and local leaders grappling with the issue said they hope the new rule sunsets along with Stitt’s time in office.

At East Central University in Ada, two of four vacated positions – in history and criminal justice – remain unfilled after lower than normal application rates and numerous candidate withdrawals. A second-choice candidate was hired in the computer science department after the most qualified said “no” to a job offer, all owing to the college’s inability to offer a tenure track.

“The governor, in messages he has delivered to us, says he disagrees with academic freedom and thinks professors at the end of their careers aren’t doing much,” said ECU President Wendell Godwin. “But we have a process for getting rid of professors who are not effective, whether they are tenured or not.”

Following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump’s second-term shakeup of higher education through funding cuts, bans on diversity programs and litigation, Gov Kevin Stitt issued his own crackdown on Oklahoma colleges in February. 

One executive order forbids publicly funded regional universities and community colleges statewide from granting tenure to new hires, while sparing the state’s flagship research institutions, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. 

The other ordered a “better return-on-investment analysis,” as Stitt said universities need to be more accountable to tuition payers and taxpayers.

University leaders and state lawmakers from these rural Oklahoma are perplexed to find themselves in the crosshairs of this culture war issue.

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