SBU Trustees Reverse Some Tenure/Promotion Denials After nearly two weeks of controversy following an unusual move to deny tenure or promotion to five faculty members, the Board of Trustees for Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, reversed some of those decisions in a meeting held virtually Tuesday (Feb. 16). The trustees reversed one tenure denial and one promotion denial, but still denied tenure to two professors and still denied promotion to another. Word&Way broke the news on Feb. 4 that SBU’s trustees denied tenure to three individuals in the Division of Behavioral Sciences and denied promotion to two faculty members in other academic areas. The unusual move at the trustee level occurred even after the five had been approved at all earlier levels, including division chair, dean, and provost. A denial of tenure also means termination after one additional year of employment.