July 1, 2009
Associate Secretary of the American Association of University Professors Dr. Anita Levy issued a June 25 letter to FAU President Frank Brogan citing concern over the FAU administration’s abrupt termination of five tenured faculty members in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. In the letter Levy further pointed to the University Faculty Senate’s unanimous June 5 condemnation of the College of Engineering’s reorganization without its approval, and the Senate’s opposition to layoffs of tenured faculty. “As you probably know,” Levy reminded Brogan, “cases of involuntary termination of tenure are potentially of central concern to AAUP because of our longstanding commitment to academic freedom and due process.”
Shortly after the Engineering faculty members received layoff notices the UFF Executive Committee began work on grievances while also informing the AAUP’s Washington DC office of the terminations. AAUP representatives have expressed their support of the grievance procedures. On June 22 grievances were filed by UFF for the chapter and four of the five faculty who opted to proceed. In her June 25 correspondence Levy extended the AAUP’s services “to all involved parties” in resolving the crisis.
View 6-25 AAUP Letter to Brogan: aaup_brogan3
Additional discussion at the PB Post’s Extra Credit Blog.