The University will be under investigation for alleged violations of academic freedom later this week.Robert Kreiser, associate secretary for the American Association of University Professors, said a committee of three professors will be at the University on Friday and Saturday to interview faculty members and review the history of the Ivor van Heerden claims and Dominique Homberger complaint.The AAUP, whose purpose is to advance academic freedom and define standards for higher education, receives hundreds of complaints each year but only investigates four or five cases, Kreiser said.”The cases involve such serious matters that they warrant the undertaking of an investigation,” Kreiser said. “Only a handful reach the level of seriousness that these cases reach.”This past April, College of Basic Sciences Dean Kevin Carman removed Homberger from teaching Biology 1001 because of abnormally low grades. Ninety percent of students in her class had a D or F at midterms.”Being taken out of the course is unheard of,” Homberger told The Daily Reveille on April 20. “You do this to someone who comes into class drunk or if someone brings a gun into class. There are cases where you are justified to do that, but not about grades.”Homberger continued her research with the University, but her removal from teaching the class caused an uproar among professors last semester, questioning the administration’s jurisdiction in classroom matters. Kreiser said Carman’s action raises questions about academic freedom.Kreiser sent a letter April 5 to Chancellor Michael Martin that said the AAUP “has consistently viewed an instructor’s authority in assigning particular grades to be a direct corollary of the freedom in the classroom.”Homberger also filed a grievance with the grievance committee, a subsidiary of Faculty Senate. The committee collects evidence, requests information of concerned parties and makes a final recommendation to the Office of Academic Affairs, according to Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope.Cope said the findings are confidential to Homberger unless she releases them. Homberger is currently out of the country and unavailable for comment.The AAUP is also investigating the case of van Heerden, a former University professor and former director of the Hurricane Center, who claimed his contract was not renewed for retaliatory reasons. Van Heerden told The Daily Reveille on April 23, 2009, he “was fired because of his criticism to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for poor levee structure in New Orleans and because the University wanted to receive more federal grants.”The claims caused a huge uproar and garnered national attention because of the case’s close tie to Hurricane Katrina.Van Heerden filed suit against the University last year, stating he was wrongfully terminated for retaliatory reasons. A federal judge dismissed the case because van Heerden failed to show how the University’s decision was based on levee failure during Hurricane Katrina.Kreiser’s letter to Chancellor Martin said van Heerden’s firing “raises significant issues of academic freedom, tenure and due process.””We have been in correspondence with administration in reference to the case about van Heerden, and there have been no responses from the chancellor,” Kreiser said. “Their attorney said they would not cooperate with the investigation.”The chancellor will comment on a draft text prepared by the AAUP based on its findings.The committee will then prepare a report, which will be reviewed for publication and published on the AAUP’s website.”The authority of the AAUP is an authority we have had since our founding in 1915, which is to ensure the acceptable standards of academic standards and due process,” Kreiser said. “Actions taken by the administration in these two cases do not conform with these standards.”
 
 
 
____Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]