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Originally posted by: info
"There's some news on the AAUP-USM page: "USM AAUP Chapter Committee Conducts Inquiry into 'Gulf Coast Incident.'""

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Thanks for the heads up info.  Here is the article for easy reading:

“Committee A” of the USM chapter of the American Association of University Professors is conducting an investigation of the “Gulf Coast incident” reported in the Hattiesburg American (“Gulf Coast to focus on on-line courses,” November 2)

1). Three aspects of the incident are presently under review:

1. Possible violation of academic freedom.
What evidence is there that Professor Diane Stevenson stepped outside the scope of academic freedom – guaranteed by IHL policy – when she discussed the future of the Gulf Park campus with her class? Uninvited visits to a classroom by administrators in order to “correct” the (alleged, uncorroborated) remarks of a faculty member seem, at best, intimidating and injurious to an open learning environment.

2. Process and roles.
What precise roles were played in the matter by the departmental chair (Dr. Wheeler), the dean (Dr. Pood), the provost (Dr. Grimes) and Gulf Park administrators (Dr. Malone and Mr. Farley)? In particular, why was Dr. Malone – chair of the Department of Economic Development and simultaneously the “Chief Operating Officer” of the Gulf Park campus – involved, when he apparently does not occupy a place in the chain of authority from Dr. Stevenson to the chair, dean and provost?

3. The broader governance context. What decisions regarding curriculum organization and delivery for the Gulf Park campus have been made by university administrators without appropriate faculty input? Above all other matters, curriculum concerns are within the province of faculty members and their representative bodies (the various college curriculum committees, Academic Council and Graduate Council).
The chapter has informed both the Mississippi State Conference of AAUP and the national office of AAUP that it is conducting this investigation.

Committee A hopes to share at least preliminary findings at a meeting of the general membership on December 8.