I am a faculty member of 42 years, distressed over the recent unjust firing of a tenured Associate Professor, its fact and manner, and LSU administration’s actions since.
Instead of clear explanations, they issue Press Releases that distort the record while advancing new allegations, culminating last week at the Faculty Senate’s first meeting (Sept 2) of the academic year where a Resolution was to be introduced on the matter. After months of silence, LSU issued two Press Releases that very morning and the chancellor-president read from them at the meeting, saying “he was asked to” (by whom?). In these attacks on a faculty member not notified to be present to defend herself, there is a spiritual and moral coarseness and failing beyond the issues involved.
The Senate is a faculty body, and provosts and chancellors speak at the beginning as honored guests in a courtesy extended to their offices. Wednesday’s performance transgressed common decency while exhibiting an abuse of authority, a lack of respect towards the faculty, and an ignorance of our values. Is there not even a broader social stricture about a guest not fouling his hosts and their premises?
A core principle of US universities is shared governance between the administrators and the faculty, especially on all academic matters involving courses, curricula, and the hiring and promotion of faculty. On this last, LSU’s two most important Policy Statements are PS-36 (hiring, promotion, and tenure) and PS-104 (revocation of tenure). Actions under both occur only after long lead times, as appropriate to the gravity of those decisions, and involve senior faculty members from across campus. This safeguards against local biases, in either direction. While, occasionally, a recommendation may be overturned by the upper administration and the Board of Supervisors (BOS), good practice and health require justification to avoid arbitrary exercise, even abuse, by a single authority such as the chancellor-president.
Increasingly, however, LSU’s administration seems to follow its own appointed lawyers and Human Resources (HRM) officers (with little or no academic credentials to judge issues involved), ignoring even unanimous faculty recommendations as in this case, while claiming no explanation is necessary. The millions spent on litigation and court settlements, and the discredit of censures drawn from prestigious national organizations such as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), are serious costs as the administration blunders from one to the next with no accountability of the administrators and their staff involved. A different attitude of actively seeking the wisdom, institutional knowledge and dedication in the faculty voice, especially of those who have served LSU for decades, might lead to better outcomes.
In this recent firing, LSU by-passed it own well-prescribed policies. When allegations were made against a person whose record over 18 years was unblemished, indeed had glowing recommendations internal and external for promotion, it was not for HRM to make its own investigation and judge. Detailed roles for the Chair, Dean, and fellow faculty are prescribed for remedial measures when needed and, only when not successful, a referral to a PS-104 Committee to revoke tenure.
Instead, an administration with mind made up, sought post facto backing by going straight into a PS-104 hearing. After a full 12-hr hearing of the allegations, its own examination of witnesses and of the facts, this body of five senior faculty members not only dismissed some charges as unfounded but ruled unanimously against dismissal. Far from giving pause that their evidence could not convince such a panel representing decades of service and experience, the chancellor-president proceeded to recommend to the BOS dismissal, citing the HRM investigation (considered and found wanting by the PS-104 panel) but not explaining to that panel, Faculty Senate or any body the grounds for overruling that unanimous finding.
The administration tries instead to influence the public with Press Releases that selectively distort the record, including of the findings of the PS-104 panel, while throwing in new allegations. It is like a prosecutor who has struck out re-trying his case through the media.
This is only the most recent and egregious example of LSU’s HRM and lawyers (ill-)advising and directing a compliant chancellor-president. Several research faculty members, who do not have tenure but have served for over a dozen years, have not had their annual contracts renewed even while in good standing in their field and with external funding. Reasoned appeals, saying graduate students are affected and grant funds will be forfeited, draw a pro forma response that a non-renewal requires no explanation. While legalistically correct, professionals with years of service deserve an explanation, not a dismissive refusal to give one.
It may play in local circles but LSU’s poor sense in attacking the AAUP can only bring further opprobrium on LSU, affecting current and future faculty, our students, and our mission. AAUP was in the process of looking to lift its previous censure but issued a supplementary censure, only the seventh in its hundred-year history, on the latest firing. Their investigation thoroughly debunks LSU’s case, adding: “If a major public research university like LSU can so brazenly ignore its own policies and impose on its faculty members … , no faculty anywhere will be safe from similar action.“
The state of our ship should indeed be of grave concern to all, students, staff, and faculty. It does not befit an educational institution, leave alone of higher learning, and leave alone a Flagship.
September 8, 2015 A. R. P. Rau, Physics & Astronomy, LSU
“I would use it to create a benevolent fund (a charitable foundation with an endowment) to help all those faculty members — especially those in the lower income ranges — who have been cheated out of the produce of their labor and who have been deprived of a happy retirement by the dishonest and immoral state-regulated retirement system — the infamous ‘ORP’ (Optional Retirement Plan).” - Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope
