Dive Summary:
- Southern University at Baton Rouge faces allegations of violating basic principles of shared governance, tenure and due process from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) involving the school's layoff of 19 tenured professors and faculty salary cuts.
- The AAUP issued a report in which it says faculty members were given little voice in deciding which positions to terminate and pretty much shut out completely as the system's Board of Supervisors and the Baton Rouge flagship's administration paved the way of the layoffs with a 2011 declaration that the campus was in a state of financial exigency.
- The association is working to revise its guidelines for colleges considering financial exigency declarations, and a censure vote for Southern University is expected at the AAUP's annual meeting in June.
From the article:
... "In some cases," the report says, "department chairs were unaware that members of their department had been selected for layoff." Nearly all faculty members' appeals of their terminations were denied through a process the report characterizes as failing to meet AAUP standards. ...