Developments relating to censure by the Association

Members of the Association's staff, acting on behalf of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, communicate during the course of each year with administrations under censure. The staff offers its assistance and that of Committee A in bringing about developments at the institution that would enable the committee to recommend to the annual meeting that the censure be removed. A summary of developments at institutions on the list of censured administrations appears annually in the issue of Academe (prior to 1979, the AAUP Bulletin) that immediately precedes the annual meeting.

The statements that follow, in chronological order according to the date of imposition of censure, constitute our appraisal of developments at the listed institutions for the year through April 1, 2002. Relevant actions of significance that occur after April I will be reported to Committee A, the Council, and the Eighty-eighth Annual Meeting at the sessions of these bodies between May 31 and June 9.

The list of censured administrations, appearing elsewhere in this issue, cites the published reports that were the basis for the censure in each case.

-THE COMMITTEE A STAFF

Grove City College (Pennsylvania)

The Forty-ninth Annual Meeting in 1963 voted to censure the administration of Grove City College following an investigating committee's report on the dismissal of an experienced professor without his having been afforded opportunity for a hearing and other safeguards of academic due process.

The administration of Grove City College, during this past year, as in many previous years, has not responded to invitations by the Association's staff to discuss the censure and its potential removal.

Amarillo College (Texas)

In 1968 the Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting imposed censure on the Amarillo College administration for having summarily suspended a senior faculty member and ultimately dismissing her. The investigating committee's report concluded that these actions violated the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the college's own regulations.

Revised Amarillo College policies, adopted three years ago, are in closer conformity with Association-supported standards than were the preceding policies. The staff has continued over the past year to seek additional revisions, but without result.

Frank Phillips College (Texas)

Censure was imposed on the Frank Phillips College administration by the Fifty-fifth Annual Meeting in 1969, following an investigating committee's report on the summary dismissal of a faculty member in her tenth year of service.

As noted in earlier years' accounts of "Developments Relating to Censure," the issue of redress has been resolved, but the college remains without a system of faculty tenure. As has been his pattern during the last few years, the president has not been responsive to invitations over the past twelve months from the Association's staff to discuss potential changes in the college's current policies.

Virginia Community College System

The Sixty-first Annual Meeting voted in 1975 to impose this censure. It did so on the basis of a published report on actions by the chancellor and the governing board to abolish the further granting of tenure in the twenty-three colleges that constitute the Virginia Community College System. The report found that these actions had been taken without previous faculty knowledge and contrary to manifest faculty will.

The current official policies of the Virginia Community College System have provisions for academic due process that were lacking when censure was imposed. The granting of indefinite tenure, however, has not been restored. As reported in earlier annual accounts of "Developments Relating to Censure," the Association's Committee A, responding to lack of action by the system's governing board to reinstate indefinite tenure, reaffirmed its own unwillingness to recommend removing the censure with tenure absent.

A new chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, taking office last summer, promptly established a committee of college presidents to prepare a recommendation on the feasibility of working with the AAUP to achieve censure removal. He asked the committee to report back to him by May 1. An informal meeting prior to that date between the chancellor and a member of the Association's staff has been arranged.

Concordia Seminary (Missouri)

The administration of Concordia Seminary was added to the censure list by the 1975 annual meeting. The censure followed an investigating committee's findings that the administration terminated a professor's services because external ecclesiastical authorities objected to his views on subjects that were within his area of academic competence.

Again this past year, seminary president John Franklin Johnson has not responded to the staffs expressions of interest in discussing the censure and its potential removal.

Houston Baptist University

The Sixty-first Annual Meeting voted to censure the Houston Baptist University administration for having acted without affording academic due process to terminate the services of a professor whose teaching experience had exceeded the maximum probationary period permitted under the 1940 Statement of Principles. The published report on this case also dealt with the abrogation of the existing tenure system by the institution's governing board.