By Anna Hansen
A national association of higher education professionals is investigating the May 27 terminations of seven Edgewood College faculty members.
In a June 10 letter to new Edgewood College President Andrew Manion, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) said that Edgewood administrators did not involve faculty in the decision to fire the seven and didn’t prove financial “exigency.”
Manion, who became president of Edgewood June 1, inherited the situation from former Interim Edgewood College President Mary Ellen Gevelinger.
The AAUP is a group of academic professionals designed to uphold standards for shared governance and academic tenure in American colleges and universities. The AAUP investigation could expose the college to further legal action, but the AAUP does not accredit or regulate the college.
Bonnie Sierlecki, a former tenure-track associate professor of communication studies and student research mentor, is one of the affected professors. “Campus-wide action is required,” said Sierlecki on June 11. “Edgewood College has not been complying with AAUP-recommended standards.
“Consequently, it is our students who are harmed by the careless elimination of faculty expertise, and the abrupt elimination of academic programs such as the Student Research Program and the Honors Program. The AAUP is holding Edgewood College accountable for the quality of the education promised to our students.”
The AAUP’s regulations state that:
- Termination of an appointment with continuous tenure, or of a probationary or special appointment before the end of the specified term, may occur under extraordinary circumstances “because of a demonstrably bona fide financial exigency”
- Faculty must have “early, careful, and meaningful” involvement in decisions relating to “the reduction of the instructional and research programs.”
- Besides financial exigency, tenured appointments may only be terminated due to “a bona fide program discontinuance for educational reasons”
Edgewood College is also reviewing its faculty handbook, which in some respects mirrors AAUP recommendations. Here is the link to the faculty handbook: https://catalog.edgewood.edu/index.php?catoid=9
The AAUP letter to Manion said, “The financial conditions that bear on such decisions should not be allowed to obscure the fact that instruction and research constitute the essential reasons for the existence of the university.”
The letter asked Edgewood’s administration to reinstate the fired faculty members, urging the “immediate rescission of the termination notices issued to these faculty members and any similarly situated colleagues.”
It also recommended that Edgewood administration and faculty work together to update the standards outlined in the faculty handbook regarding termination.
“In the absence of such revisions, academic freedom and tenure at Edgewood College are not secure,” it said.
On June 11, Jacob Griffin, Edgewood’s chair of environmental studies, said, the firings were “an eroding of the accepted best practices and norms in higher ed.”
“After seeing colleagues with decades of service to Edgewood dismissed in this way,” Griffin said, “many of us are concerned that our own tenure and academic freedom could be similarly treated in the future. The AAUP letter validates these concerns and highlights the areas we need to strengthen to better protect faculty in the future.”
One faculty member who wished to remain anonymous also expressed concern. “So now I have found out—although it was public knowledge—that Edgewood is building a lacrosse field at Reddan soccer field, which will include stands, a press box, and a score board,” said the faculty member. “According to the AAUP . . . a state of financial exigency would not allow for major capital expenditures. So how much does this field cost?”
The AAUP stated that Edgewood administrators hadn’t been transparent with faculty regarding the financial situation prompting the firings.
Edgewood administrators declined to comment and said the AAUP letter is premature. “Until the process plays out, I will have nothing to say to the press or to the AAUP.” said Manion on June 11.
THE AAUP letter said, “To our knowledge, the college’s governing board has not declared the existence of a financial exigency and none of the procedures required under regulation 4c have been followed in reaching the decision to terminate the professors, and, presumably, [the three others fired].”
“Most notably, it lacks a definition of financial exigency, any procedures for reaching a decision to declare that such a condition exists, and any specifications for ensuring that the faculty participates meaningfully in making such a declaration.”
When asked for comment, the AAUP sent OTE an automatic response stating that it would take up to 15 days for a response. “Because we receive dozens of inquiries and complaints weekly (many of them urgent), an immediate response is often not possible.”
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