The Chronicle of Higher Education
August 5th, 2014
The American Association of University Professors has received an unusual response to its plans to investigate the tenure practices of a university-affiliated cancer center: demands from the center that the AAUP first answer a long list of tough questions about its authority in such matters.
In a five-page letter sent to the AAUP last week, the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center expressed concern that the association’s investigation "may not be conducted in a manner that ordinarily prudent people would consider either objective or considerate of our focused mission."
The Houston-based center’s letter asks the AAUP more than 20 questions related to the validity and fairness of any such investigation, touching on subjects such as why no college administrators serve on the association’s investigative committees and just how much of the nation’s professoriate it counts as dues-paying members.