The Chronicle of Higher Education
May 13th, 2015
The American Association of University Professors is accusing both the University of Southern Maine and Felician College, in New Jersey, of making unnecessary cuts in their faculties in ways that violated shared governance and the instructors’ job protections.
In separate reports issued on Wednesday, the AAUP disputes the financial justifications offered last year by Southern Maine in cutting about 60 positions and by Felician, a Roman Catholic four-year college, in trimming 16. The reports argue that the institutions’ financial condition was not as dire as they said. The reports also characterize the academic considerations cited by the college administrations as pretextual.
The formal statements of findings set the stage for the association’s members to vote to censure the institutions at the AAUP’s annual conference, in June.