In comments to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he is pursuing several reforms to the state college system via executive orders and legislative change, including measures to reduce the time it takes to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Oklahoma and faculty tenure reform.

“Here in Oklahoma, we want to deliver higher education that meets workforce needs and keeps our talent at home,” Stitt said. “It’s a win-win.”

Stitt announced he is signing an executive order that directs state college officials to create a 90-credit-hour pathway to a bachelor’s degree. Those programs could allow students to shave off a year of college and significantly reduce associated educational costs.

The governor noted that universities in several other states are already offering 90-hour programs, including Massachusetts, Maine, Indiana, and Utah.

“This speeds up workforce entry,” Stitt said. “It makes so much sense.”

The governor said he is also issuing an executive order directing university officials to explore tenure reform for faculty.

“No job funded by taxpayers should be exempt from regular, meaningful performance reviews, whether you’re the governor or you are a university professor,” Stitt said. “Let’s modernize higher education so it looks more like the real world our students will enter, rewarding excellence and staying focused on results.”

Stitt said university leaders should standardize expectations for tenured professors so they must teach a certain number of classes or bring in a specific level of research dollars.

“Don’t let someone teach no classes and bring no research dollars in, right?” Stitt said. “That’s pretty silly.”

Stitt said he is also going to advocate for lawsuit reform during this year’s legislative session, saying the state should cap damages on wrongful termination lawsuits against universities.

Stitt said he has been told by university officials that it is easier to leave unproductive employees on staff rather than deal with the cost of fighting a lawsuit if the school fires those individuals.

“We hear, ‘Well, if we terminate this person, we’ll get sued. It’s not worth it. We’ll just let them do nothing for the next 10 years until hopefully they leave,’” Stitt said. “Well, that’s not a good solution either. Most Oklahomans think that’s weird, that’s dumb, it shouldn’t happen. Oklahomans will always back excellent faculty, but we should not subsidize systems that put privilege over performance.”

Stitt announced his executive orders also direct state colleges to consider student wages and employment outcomes when higher-education officials approve or sunset an academic program.

Stitt praised the Regents for their recent decision to close 41 low-enrollment degree programs and put 193 more programs on action plans.

“This is important to always be thinking about how we are utilizing state resources to align with workforce and make sure we’re taking care of the taxpayers’ money,” Stitt said.

Executive Order 2026-08 directs the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and Regents for Higher Education to enhance tracking of post-graduate wages, job types, hours worked, and employment locations for better return-on-investment analysis. 

The order also requires a 90-day feasibility study on 90-credit-hour “accelerated” bachelor’s degrees to slash time and costs while maintaining quality, accreditation, and job relevance. 

It also requires Regents to use outcomes data when approving, reviewing, or sunsetting academic programs, and initiates performance-based funding in the appropriation of higher education dollars, tying institutions’ state funding to workforce and employment outcomes, affordability, and the state’s strategic economic development priorities.  

Executive Order 2026-07 allows research universities to retain tenure with mandatory five-year reviews and performance standards and instructs regional universities and community colleges to phase out new lifetime tenure, shifting to renewable contracts tied to teaching effectiveness, student completion, job placement, and economic alignment. Existing tenures remain with reviews.