The LSU Faculty Council convened for its annual meeting with University President William F. Tate IV Monday, where faculty members questioned the president about the university’s responses to federal directives and expressed concern over cuts to university programs.
Though the LSU Faculty Senate, which is separate from the council, could not meet quorum at the meeting, Tate and Faculty Senate President Daniel C. Tirone issued their respective president’s reports and held a question-and-answer forum between faculty members and Tate.
Tirone’s report began by addressing ongoing Faculty Senate agenda items, including a resolution for LSU employers to increase their monthly contribution to the Optional Retirement Plan. He concluded by praising the Faculty Senate for their diligent efforts to represent their colleagues in an increasingly uncertain environment for higher education.
Tate discussed the impact of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut programs that affect higher education in his report, including cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the Department of Education.
Tate acknowledged these cuts have created an uncertain environment for higher education officials.
“Even the state legislators don’t know what’s going to happen,” Tate said.
Tate insisted the university is doing all it can to protect faculty from federal cuts to higher education and praised the administration for developing close relationships with state legislators.
He defended the university’s decision to institute a hiring freeze and discussed future efforts to improve LSU, emphasizing that the university would continue to support students at its campuses and through LSU Online. These measures, he said, would help the university remain financially stable amid unprecedented funding cuts.
Michael Russo, a longtime LSU librarian, lambasted Tate and Executive Vice President and Provost Roy Haggerty for their decision to eliminate the tenure track for librarians in September.
“I have three questions,” Russo said. “One, whose idea was it? Two, did you come to that decision? And three, why did it happen in secret?”
Tate deferred to Haggerty who shook his head in the front row as Russo spoke. Haggerty defended the university’s decision, observing that most private universities don’t offer tenure to librarians and insisting that, despite Russo’s objections, most of his colleagues would support the decision.
Psychology professor Paul Frick later asked how the university planned to navigate federal challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which he said were vital to much of his colleague’s research.
Tate sympathized with Frick, noting his own commitment to supporting diversity in health equity research. Nonetheless, he insisted he could not change federal policy and that, in the meantime, LSU was already doing the best it could to protect faculty members’ research.
One particularly vocal critic of the university’s response to the Trump administration’s actions was physics and astronomy professor A. Ravi P. Rau. Describing academic freedom as “the elephant in the room,” Rau compared federal actions targeting higher education to Joseph McCarthy’s campaign against communism in the 1950s.
“We are heirs to a tradition of centuries on matters of academic freedom,” Rau said.
Calling for solidarity among faculty and universities across the country, Rau asked Tate to sign a nationwide petition, in which university presidents pledge to not be intimidated by Trump.
Tate responded by saying he had already done everything he could to speak out against federal challenges to colleges and universities, pointing to a recent piece he wrote criticizing efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
He also seemed pessimistic about prospects for solidarity.
“I called other people in the SEC and asked them to engage,” Tate said, “and they said ‘no.’”
After the meeting concluded, Rau expressed dissatisfaction with Tate’s response.
“The iceberg has already hit the ship,” Rau said. “The president is right, and this is not a criticism of LSU in particular; it’s a criticism of universities as a whole. We are too apathetic. We need to take a stand against authoritarian challenges to colleges and universities while we still have the chance.”
This article has been updated to clarify the LSU Faculty Council convened the annual meeting Monday, not the LSU Faculty Senate.
