Call for Deliberation, Engagement, and Due Process in Budget Cut Decisions Affecting Program Eliminations and Faculty Terminations

The elimination of programs and the dismissal of tenured and tenure-track faculty are two of the most drastic steps any university can take.  Such matters affecting faculty, programs, and ultimately student education must be carefully and deliberately considered and should broadly engage faculty in every step of decision-making processes.  Further, the decisions should be consistent with the long-term strategic goals of the university and take into consideration the mission and core values of the institution.  Such deliberate measures cannot be accomplished in a process accelerated to meet its ends in a matter of two weeks.

Originally, the APG was not organized for the purpose of studying and recommending budget-cutting.  Members were selected as part of the strategic enrollment planning initiative "with responsibilities to review possibilities for reallocation of university resources towards those programs with potential to enhance enrollment" (from the APG web site http://www.usm.edu/provost/budget_planning/faqs.php).   USM faculty had no opportunity to select representatives for the budget-reduction purpose that was later assigned to the APG. The USM chapter of AAUP therefore believes that the APG, despite the supposed "representativeness" of its composition, was inappropriately used to make decisions about the budget.

The APG, upon accelerating its process, required deans to determine $2 million worth of cuts in a week's time.  Two of these deans had only been acting deans for a matter of weeks when this mandate was given.  Another dean had only been in place for 5 months while one other had only been dean for a year.  The lack of in-depth decanal experience, punctuated by the abbreviated decision time, must be acknowledged and makes these recommendations problematic.

The abbreviated time frame also contributed to the fact that many if not most faculty at the college level were not in any way engaged in meaningful ways regarding decisions that affected their units and that ultimately led to recommended cuts to programs and faculty.  This failure to engage faculty at the college level suggests a lack of transparency and compromises the idea of due process to which we know the administration is committed.

All of these things considered, AAUP-USM respectfully calls upon the administration to rescind the decision to eliminate any tenured and tenure-track positions at this time.

http://aaup-usm.org/Call_for_Deliberation.rtf