The University chapter of the American Association of University Professors discussed Thursday a resolution to reduce the pay of University administrators.
 
The resolution, authored by mathematics professor Charles Delzell, requested a 20-percent reduction of the pay packages of the University’s chancellor, provost, vice chancellors, associate and assistant vice chancellor, vice provosts and deans.
 
“If a 20 percent cut is not sufficient to prevent the termination of the affected faculty members, then those faculty members should still not be terminated until … all LSU faculty have been furloughed across the board by up to 10 percent,” the resolution said.
 
University AAUP President Brooks Ellwood criticized the administration’s role in delegating the budget cuts among the departments. He said Chancellor Michael Martin is abrogating his responsibilities and dumping them on department chairs.
 
“He’s done it badly,” Ellwood said. “It’s not worth the money he’s earning.”
 
The AAUP members and visiting faculty debated the resolutions’ specifics, including how to resolve the case of the “Foreign Language 14.”
 
The 14 are those professors who will be released as of January 2011, eliminating programs in Japanese, Russian, Portuguese and Swahili and reducing program capabilities in Italian, German and the classics.
 
The AAUP will not vote on or pass the resolution until further conferring takes place.
 
After the resolution is passed, Faculty Senate member Dominque Homberger said she would present it to the Faculty Senate. Even if the Senate does not pass the resolution, she said coverage in the media would still help the AAUP’s cause.
 
Ellwood also had updates on the investigation into Homberger and former University professor Ivor van Heerden’s cases, which the national AAUP looked into in late August. He said the cases are ongoing, and he hopes to see results soon.
 
Ellwood said there has been virtually no response from the administration on the AAUP’s investigation, and the faculty are seeking an apology.
 
“Basically we felt it was impacting our teaching functions here at LSU because it created a cloud that suggested that if a faculty who is a tenured faculty member does not bend to the wishes of administrative groups or if they do not assign grades that they think are proper, they shouldn’t be allowed to teach in a classroom,” Ellwood said.
 
 
 
 
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]