Has Partisanship Infected Tenure Decisions?

Megan Zahneis August 13, 2026 1 min read

Has Partisanship Infected Tenure Decisions?

Megan Zahneis
Chronicle of Higher Education

When news of Iván Chaar López’s tenure denial broke last month, the scholar’s supporters pointed to what they believed was the University of Texas at Austin’s unstated reason: politics.

UT-Austin’s president and a tenure-review committee he oversaw didn’t provide a reason for their decision and rejected Chaar López’s attempts to appeal, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Absent any justification, and given that Chaar López’s case had accrued near-unanimous support from his college and department, they concluded partisanship had to be involved.

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