University Business: National Group To Scrutinize University of Louisiana System's Policies For Eliminating Courses And Sacking Tenured Faculty

Professing concern over what it described as the University of Louisiana System's policies for discontinuing courses and firing tenured teachers, a national organization of professors has launched an investigation. The American Association of University Professors, which handles issues involving academic freedom, singled out conditions at two schools within that system: Southeastern Louisiana University and Northwestern State University.


In a letter Friday to system President Randy Moffett, Jordan Kurland, the organization's associate general secretary, said the association is worried about dozens of programs scheduled for elimination and policy changes that, he said, would allow dismissal of tenured faculty members with only a month's notice.


In Moffett's reply, he said the association's concerns "are based on misinformed assumptions about UL System policies and practices."


Moffett said the programs Kurland cited had been ordered shut down or consolidated because enrollments were too low to justify continuing them.


The Times-Picayune

University Business: National Group To Scrutinize University of Louisiana System's Policies For Eliminating Courses And Sacking Tenured Faculty