Financial Crisis FAQs

http://www.aaup.org/aaup/financial/mainpage.htm

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AAUP Policies and Best Practices on the following issues:
1. According to AAUP-recommended standards, when can an administration terminate faculty appointments for financial reasons?
2. Where can I find the AAUP's recommended policies and procedures on financial exigency? 
3.What is the AAUP's definition of financial exigency?
4.What should be the faculty's role in determining whether a condition of financial exigency exists?
5. What due process protections does the AAUP recommend affording a faculty member whose position is being terminated because of financial exigency? 
6. Is there an order in which appointments should be terminated after financial exigency has been declared? 
7. How much notice should an administration provide a faculty member whose appointment is being terminated for financial exigency?
8. Does an administration have any other obligations toward a faculty member whose position is terminated because of financial exigency?
9. Can institutions terminate faculty appointments by eliminating programs and departments for reasons other than financial exigency? 
10. Where can I find sample faculty handbook policies on financial exigency that comport with AAUP recommended standards?

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/Financial/Policy/
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Legal considerations:
1. Can my school legally furlough me or lay me off during these financially hard times?
2. Our university president isn't mandating furloughs yet, but he has asked faculty members to take two days off this month voluntarily. Is this OK?
3. If it is legal to furlough me, can my university furlough me just for a day? For half a day? For an entire semester?
4. I teach at a unionized public university. The state is in the process of passing a law stating that all state employees will be furloughed for two days per month regardless of preexisting contracts. Is that constitutional?
5. What type of notice and hearing is required before I am furloughed?
6. What factors may be used in determining financial exigency?
7. Have courts recognized the connection between protecting tenure and limiting declarations of financial exigency?
8. My school's bylaws and faculty handbook do not mention financial exigency as a possible grounds for termination, but the school has invoked it anyway.  Is that legal? 
9. How much notice should an administration provide a faculty member whose position will be terminated for financial exigency?     
10. My position was terminated as a result of a program elimination, and I protested. The university officials who made the program-elimination decisions were same the ones who judged my hearing.  Is that legal? 
11. I was told that at my termination hearing, I didn't have "legal" rights like the right to an attorney, the right to cross-examine witnesses, the right to present evidence, or the right to a written record of the hearing. Is that accurate? 
12. I am a tenured faculty member at a public institution.  What are my constitutional rights with respect to continued employment?
13. I think that my institution might be using financial exigency as a cover for getting rid of a number of older faculty members. Could we have a claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)? 
14. My position has just been terminated.  I cannot get health insurance through my spouse, so the only way I can retain it is through COBRA, which is so expensive; is there any assistance available?
15. My institution has offered early retirement or tenure buyouts; if I accept, will I be taxed on the buyout amount?
16. Does the AAUP provide legal assistance or a list of recommended lawyers?
17. I am a contingent faculty member, and because of the economy, I have not been offered any courses this term. Am I entitled to unemployment benefits?

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/Financial/Legal/