New Orleans universities censured

University regulations and faculty rights were thrown to the wind in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Such are the conclusions of a blue-ribbon panel that investigated New Orleans universities for the American Association of University Professors (see Physics Today, November 2006, page 28 ). As a result, on 9 June the AAUP censured Loyola University, Tulane University, Southern University at New Orleans, and the University of New Orleans.

Being placed on the censure list is “a statement to the academic community and the public at large that things are amiss at the institutions in question,” says the AAUP’s Robert Kreiser.

The specific transgressions vary from institution to institution, but a common feature “was that they abrogated or did not follow their own policies or AAUP recommendations with regard to dealing with financial exigency,” Kreiser says. “They showed inadequate or no respect for tenure, undertook little or no meaningful consultation with faculty in decisions that were made, and denied the protection of academic due process.” In short, professors were fired without regard to their tenure status.

The report notes concerns at the investigated institutions “that Katrina provided the occasion to single out faculty for separation who were disliked by those in authority for having previously opposed or criticized their actions or who were seen as expendable.” The panel did not assess this charge but concluded that it “leaves all of the affected institutions under a cloud of suspicion that cannot be dispelled and that augurs ill for the future absent effective remedial action.”

Because of the number of institutions involved and the seriousness of the issues, the New Orleans investigation was the AAUP’s largest ever. The previous record holder was from the post-McCarthy era, Kreiser says, “and that one is dwarfed by this one.” At present, 47 institutions nationwide are under AAUP censure.

In a statement, Tulane calls the AAUP report “deeply flawed,” “factually inaccurate,” and “riddled with erroneous information and contradictions that do not support its own conclusions or AAUP doctrine.”