Another serious accusation has been levied against the University — and the offended parties are once again loudly and publicly claiming administrators flagrantly violated the academic freedom of another instructor. A letter sent to several ranking administrators Monday by the American Association of University Professors accuses several high-ranking administrators of “violations of fundamental, well-established faculty rights, specifically academic freedom in the classroom, and due process, as laid out in a number of documents that the University subscribes to.”These allegations stem from the University’s actions regarding the BIOL 1001 class taught by Dr. Dominique Homberger. She was abruptly yanked from instructing the course when the class’s midterm grades were shockingly low. Students’ grades were artificially raised by 25 percent, and a new instructor took over halfway through the course.The AAUP is claiming this action was taken with “no pre-suspension/removal consultation with Homberger by higher administrators” and “before HRM (Human Resource Management) was contacted.”Homberger has taught the class for more than 30 years. A cursory examination of the University policies the organization is citing indicates the University might have conceivably not been culpable in these actions. But the technicalities are up for debate and are largely irrelevant — if events transpired as the AAUP and Homberger claimed they did, the University has committed a serious breach of academic integrity.Someone has fouled up badly if the University did indeed pull Homberger from her class and arbitrarily altered the grades she assigned. If this isn’t the case, the accused officials need to loudly and publicly deny them. Sound familiar? It should — the whole situation eerily echoes accusations at stake in an impeding lawsuit by Dr. Ivor van Heerden, who claims he was fired because of his post-Katrina criticism of the Corps of Engineers.The University’s silence on that issue has been deafening. It can’t afford to keep that silence this time. Whether the accusations are true or not, this debacle further contributes to the image of a draconian administration willing to cut corners and censor professors for the sake of political expediency. And it casts a negative light on this institution, which — given the damage of budget cuts and other lawsuits — is already suffering in the court of public opinion.Academic freedom is one of the paramount values of an academic institution. And the more accusations arise that challenge the University’s sanctity to that end — and the more silent the administration is on those accusations — the less appealing the University looks to prospective students and employees. Which is never, ever a good thing — especially now.—–Contact the Editorial Board at [email protected]