Academic freedom and tenure--University of the District of Columbia: Massive terminations of faculty appointments

Academe, May/Jun 1998 by Steiner, Peter O, Bergmann, Barbara R, Poston, Muriel E

The first administration-sponsored plan-the "Report of the Provost's Special Task Force," a body consisting largely of deans and academic department chairs, though with some faculty and student representation-was issued on November 25,1996, and proposed that 94 faculty positions and 153 staff positions be eliminated by the following spring. Members of the faculty questioned the accuracy of the report's data and the validity of its conclusions and recommendations. The report appeared on the eve of Dr. LeMelle's resignation from the presidency. Following his departure he released a statement: "I have chosen to step aside in the hope that my presence will no longer be a deterrent or an excuse to avoid addressing the university's real problems of forced fiscal insolvency and threatened academic deterioration." Provost Nimmons was named acting president and charged with preparing a plan to resolve the budget deficit.

During Dr. Nimmons's first month in office, the report of his task force went through a series of revisions and formed the basis for what was then retitled "The President's Plan for Fiscal Years 1997 and 1998." In the process of revision, the number of proposed faculty cuts was increased from 94 to 125, though no explanation was given for the increase.5 The plan also indicated a reduction in staff positions of approximately lOO.6 On December 20, the board of trustees approved the president's plan.

On January 13, following a payless furlough over the holidays for all faculty and staff, Acting Provost Sullivan transmitted to the faculty the "final draft" of the "Academic Affairs Fiscal Contingency Plan"-developed by the provost's office working with deans, department chairs, and the director of the Division of Learning Resources-which allocated the 125 faculty position cuts to specific departments and programs. The administration gave the faculty three days to offer comments "in order that the final plan can be approved by the President and forwarded to the Board of Trustees by January 17." The document, unchanged so far as the investigating committee knows, was forwarded to the trustees on January 21, with a cover memorandum expressing the administration's belief that the plan would be "least disruptive to the academic pursuits of our students and . . . will achieve its gapclosing objective." In the meantime, on January 16, city financial officials notified the administration that UDC would need to absorb additional cuts of $682,000 as the university's share of a multimillion dollar budget reduction that was being imposed on all city agencies.

Throughout this period developments occurring outside the university continued to have a significant impact on what was going on inside; indeed, on most matters affecting the institution the locus of decision making was beyond the campus. On December 2, Anthony Williams, the city's chief financial officer, whose staff had been "reviewing all areas within the University, including space utilization, the consolidation or elimination of programs, and the reduction in size or outsourcing of the security function as areas to reduce expenditures this fiscal year without impacting UDC's ability to maintain accreditation," wrote to the D.C. city council, stating that "the elimination of the $16.2 million deficit is impossible to achieve if UDC is forced to honor the Master Agreement . . . [with] the Faculty Association." The next day, at Mr. Williams's request, the city council adopted a "sense of the council" resolution declaring the university to be in a state of financial emergency and suggesting that the board of trustees, through the council, request the U.S. Congress to enact legislation that would permit the abrogation of certain provisions of the collective bargaining agreement respecting the amount of notice of intent to terminate appointments, the amount of severance pay, and the level of retirement benefits for continuing faculty.