Academic Freedom and Tenure: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center 1

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, located in Houston, was established in 1941 as part of the University of Texas and is now one of six medical institutions in the fifteen-member University of Texas system. Named for a Tennessee banker and cotton broker whose foundation initially contributed more than $19 million toward its creation, MD Anderson is one of the three original comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Act of 1971 (there are sixty-eight such centers today). Until 2014, when it was barely overtaken by Cornell University's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MD Anderson had for seven successive years been ranked first for cancer treatment in the US News & World Report's Best Hospitals survey. This report will focus on the nonreappointment of two members of the center's faculty, Professors Kapil Mehta and Zhengxin Wang, and will comment on the removal from faculty status of a third, Professor Gouhui Lu.