AAUP
American Association of University Professors
Academic Freedom for a Free Society
July 15, 2010
Dr. Tom Layzell
Commissioner of Higher Education
State of
Dear Dr. Layzell,
Re: Proposal for Changes to
We wish to express, in the
strongest possible terms, our objections to these proposals. They represent a
repudiation of the faculty’s role in the governance of system campuses, a
dilution of the meaning of financial exigency, and a trivialization of the
meaning of academic tenure. These
proposals are an assault on the conditions required for the academic freedom
they, in Orwellian double-speak, purport to protect.
In Ch III Sec XI, the proposed
striking out of Sec. K and insertion of “program discontinuance and/or
reduction” in Sec. J (also in Sec. XV.C.2) is in fundamental conflict even with
Sec. A’s own definition or of any accepted tenure practice in US universities. The
proposed striking out of Sec. L.3 is a unilateral abrogation of contractual
obligations. Similarly, simply by administrative action of striking out “Non”
in Sec. XV.A’s first line, a policy that previously applied to Non-tenure track
faculty is suddenly made to be for tenure-track faculty. In the light of these,
Sec. M’s first paragraph on administrators getting tenure simply based on the
supervisor’s recommendation with no faculty scrutiny makes a mockery of what
tenure has meant in US universities for decades. It is not a protection of
administrative positions but an institution designed to encourage academic
freedom, research, teaching and scholarship.
Policy Number: FS-III.XV.B-1a with changes to a July 1, 2004
document, effective date shown as July 1, 2010, inserts by fiat “reduction
and/or” into a policy that dealt with program discontinuance. Together with
major striking out of portions of that policy, it fundamentally changes the
nature of that policy. This is simply unacceptable to the faculty, both the
change and the manner in which it has been enacted. This slipping in of a
diametrically opposed policy under the guise of simple changes to a current
policy with a change of date represents bad faith by the administration towards
faculty of the
Non-reappointment of a faculty
member is no longer based upon “work record and behavior,” but on review
of “specific conditions relating to the
position.” We note with concern the
inconsistency between a reliance on unspecified conditions, the lack of
provision for meaningful involvement of faculty in making such decisions, the
weak due process provision for including faculty in review hearings for tenured
faculty, in particular as regards the inclusion of faculty and the negation of
the possibility of any review beyond the campus in cases of “financial exigency
(and) program discontinuation or reduction.”
Ominously for those committed to
educational quality, the basis of internally initiated proposals for program
reduction or discontinuation are to be based on a vague litany of “educational
need, strategic realignment, resource allocation, budget constraints, or
combinations of educational strategies and financial considerations” and a
requirement for formal review eliminated.
There is the anemic provision that (our emphasis) to the extent possible, there shall be faculty participation in
these informal considerations and only “reasonable effort” made to discuss
proposals with “members of the department or program.”
The proposals notably fail to
provide for regular review of tenure track faculty during the probationary
period by their faculty colleagues while outrageously permitting administrators
to award academic tenure to their fellow administrators without faculty review.
Taken as a whole, these proposals
subvert the faculty’s role as the guardian of educational quality and not just
undermine but overturn the guarantors of academic freedom: tenure and shared
governance.
William F. Stewart, Ph. D.
President, Louisiana Conference (for the Executive Committee)
CC: Randy Moffett, President, ULS Operating Board
Artis L. Terrell, Jr., Chair, Board of
Regents
Bobby Jindal, Governor, State of
Jordan Kurland, Associate
General Secretary, AAUP