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A "You are not alone" sign sits in from of Plumb Hall.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a nonprofit faculty and academic professional association, sent a letter yesterday strongly urging Emporia State administration to rescind the 33 faculty and staff notices of termination issued on September 15.
“It is difficult not to construe what has happened at Emporia State as a direct assault on tenure and academic freedom, with grave implications for tenure and academic freedom not only at Emporia State but throughout the Kansas system of public higher education,” the letter said.
The AAUP wrote to ESU administration after nine of the dismissed faculty members, eight of whom were tenured, shared documentation with the organization. The Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) approved the framework that allowed ESU to “restructure” on Sept. 14. The next day, ESU moved forward with mass dismissals, citing declining enrollments and financial trouble.
“We determined that there does in fact appear to be significant and severe violations of AAUP recommended principles and standards,” said Michael DeCesare, senior program officer in the AAUP department of academic freedom, tenure and governance, in a phone interview with The Bulletin.
The AAUP defines “fundamental professional values and standards for higher education,” according to its website. It considers the policy documents it collects to be “the gold standard” on how academic institutions should conduct themselves, according to DeCesare.
ESU President Ken Hush did not respond to a Bulletin email about the letter. Gwen Larson, director of media relations, said administration could not comment on the letter as of that day.
Next, the AAUP will discuss appointing an ad hoc committee to investigate ESU, according to the letter. The letter requested a response from ESU administration, saying they “would welcome a resolution that would render that discussion unnecessary.”
“Our hope with his letter, primarily, is that those notices of termination are immediately rescinded, not only to these nine faculty members (that came to us), but to their similarly situated colleagues, the number of which we still aren’t exactly sure of,” DeCesare said.
Larson confirmed 33 dismissals but said ESU would not release a full list of dismissed faculty. The Bulletin independently confirmed the departments of 30 of those faculty and staff.
Dan Colson, associate professor of English, modern languages and journalism and one of the eight dismissed tenure faculty who spoke to the AAUP, said he hoped the letter would prompt ESU administration to reinvest in the norms of academic freedom and tenure, as they are crucial tenets of higher education.
“While the letter is certainly welcome and I’m happy to see the AAUP’s intervention in this case, it can’t be surprising that they’ve intervened,” Colson said. “The basic norms of tenure and academic freedom that they outline in their letter–these are things that we as a university should already be valuing.”
The letter called the process by which the decision to dismiss tenured faculty was made “illegitimate” and cited ESU’s own policy manual, the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure created by the AAUP – which ESU’s policy manual called “reasonable and prudent” – and Recommended Institutional Regulations derived from the 1940 Statement.
Under the Recommended Institutional Regulations, which is based on evaluated regulations from academic institutions, it is suggested that an elected faculty governance body, such as the ESU Faculty Senate, should participate in the decision-making. The body should be able to determine whether the university is experiencing financial exigency and have the “primary responsibility” of deciding whether dismissals should occur and what the criteria should be for those dismissals, according to the letter.
ESU’s faculty senate was not involved in the decision making process in determining financial exigency, whether or not faculty should be dismissed or deciding what criteria dismissals would be based on. HR and the university’s legal counsel, Kevin Johnson, wrote the framework, according to a member of the Leadership Team during a previous interview with The Bulletin.
ESU administration also fell short of Regulation standards by dismissing the 33 faculty members with eight months of notice and three months severance, according to DeCesare. Under Regulations, dismissed tenured faculty members are entitled to at least one year of notice and severance salary, according to the letter.
However, the 33 dismissed faculty were informed they could be terminated even sooner than May 2023 with no set criteria on what could cause that, which DeCesare said would be an “even more egregious violation” of AAUP standards.
“As the Framework omits such protections, it effectively eliminates tenure and, by extension, academic freedom,” the letter said.
Under normal circumstances, university administrations may only dismiss tenured faculty because of a “demonstrably bona fide financial exigency,” according to the letter. DeCesare defined financial exigency as a “severe financial crisis that fundamentally compromises” the institution and can not be solved without dismissing tenured faculty. ESU had not declared financial exigency before establishing the framework, according to the letter.
Under Regulations, faculty members may contest “the existence and extent of the financial exigency,” with the burden of proof being on administration. Under the 1940 Statement, there is also a due process for tenured faculty dismissals, which includes a faculty hearing where the burden of proof is on the administration, according to DeCesare.
Under the KBOR approved framework, the due process includes an administrative hearing where the burden of proof is placed on faculty without permitting discovery, according to the Workforce Management Framework.
The AAUP also found issue with the proposed appeal process in the framework, as faculty only have 30 days to file an appeal with KBOR, which is “the very body ultimately responsible for the adverse decisions.”
Sarah Spicer advises The Bulletin on stories about Emporia State’s framework to dismiss employees