Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure

Academic Freedom and Tenure: North Idaho College

Report regarding North Idaho College policies, part-time instructors lack basic protections of academic due process, therefore, making them vulnerable.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Olivet Nazarene University

Report concerning action taken by the administration of Olivet Nazarene University to remove a tenured professor from his usual teaching responsibilities and to prohibit the use of his book in all university courses. The president took this action after a controversy arose within the university’s denominational constituency over the professor’s views on evolution.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Cedarville University

The report of the investigating committee concerns the action taken by the administration of Cedarville University to dismiss a professor in the Department of Biblical Education from his tenured faculty position with thirty days' notice, without first demonstrated cause for its action in an adjudicative hearing before faculty peers.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Stillman College

Report concerning the suspension and subsequent dismissal of a faculty member by the administration of Stillman College on grounds of “malicious gossip or public verbal abuse" without due process.

Protecting an Independent Faculty Voice: Academic Freedom after Garcetti v. Ceballos

Report examining the potential impact on academic governance of the Supreme Court Garcetti v. Ceballos decision. It recommends actions to be taken in both public and private colleges and universities to preserve academic freedom in governance even in the face of judicial hostility or indifference.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: Clark Atlanta University

Report discussing the declaration of an enrollment emergency by the administration of Clark Atlanta University and its subsequent action to terminate the appointments of approximately one-fourth of the total faculty, with no notice and four weeks of unconditional severance salary.

New Academic Freedom Subcommittee

The AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure has established a subcommittee to study and recommend procedural standards to ensure academic freedom in the conduct of politically controversial academic personnel decisions. The subcommittee members are Ernst Benjamin, former AAUP general secretary, chair; Debra Nails, Michigan State University; Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University; David Rabban, University of Texas at Austin and chair of Committee A; Cary Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and AAUP president; and Gary Rhoades, AAUP general secretary.

Clark Atlanta University Report and Revised RIRs Now Online

The Association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure has authorized the publication of an investigating committee’s report on Clark Atlanta University. The report deals with the administration’s action, taken on stated grounds of an “enrollment emergency,” to dismiss fifty-five full-time faculty members, approximately one-fourth of the total faculty, effective immediately, in the middle of a semester. The affected professors were paid four weeks of unconditional severance salary.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: University of Texas Medical Branch

The report of the investigating committee concerns the actions taken by the administration of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, after a declaration of financial exigency at that institution by the University of Texas Board of Regents, to terminate the appointments of more than 120 faculty members, approximately one-third of them tenured. The actions followed a suspension of operations at the medical branch and its affected hospital as a result of the devastation inflicted on September 13, 2008, by Hurricane Ike. Faculty members received between six and nine months of notice, depending on their tenure status and length of service.

Texas Medical Branch Report and Council Record Online

An ad hoc investigating committee’s report on the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has been posted on the AAUP’s Web site, having been authorized for publication by the Association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The report deals with the administration’s action, following a declaration of financial exigency after Hurricane Ike struck in 2008, to terminate over one hundred faculty appointments, including more than forty with tenure.

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