University of Central Arkansas celebrates end to censure

President Lu Hardin, provost Gabriel Esteban, AAUP chapter representative Rebecca Williams, and outgoing faculty senate president Michael Shaefer of the University of Central Arkansas attended the AAUP's annual meeting in June in anticipation of the removal of that institution's administration from the AAUP's censure list.

The university's administration was placed on censure by the 2000 annual meeting after an investigating committee found that a tenured professor had been abruptly dismissed without academic due process as called for in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the university's own policies; that another had been denied tenure in her thirteenth year of service and deprived of faculty status; that two lecturers had been dismissed after eight years without stated reasons and opportunity for appeal; and that a new policy allowing faculty members to forgo the possibility of tenure in exchange for a higher salary was at odds with basic principles of academic freedom and tenure. The investigating committee's report appeared in the March-April 2000 issue of Academe.

A new and very different administration for the University of Central Arkansas began when Hardin became president in October 2002 and immediately announced that two of his top priorities were winning the trust of the faculty and achieving censure removal. A university committee, with Williams as its chief faculty leader, worked closely with Association staff to bring the institution's official policies into conformity with AAUP-supported standards. Hardin and the board of trustees approved all the policy changes recommended by the committee, including rescission of a policy encouraging faculty to relinquish tenure in return for a larger salary. The institution has granted tenure to the professor who had been denied it in her thirteenth year and has provided financial compensation to the two lecturers. The delegates to the annual meeting voted unanimously to remove the university from the censure list.

In a brief address to the annual meeting, Hardin said that the university had made some necessary changes in the faculty handbook that will strengthen academic freedom and due process. Noting that he is a former faculty member, Hardin emphasized the importance of academic freedom, calling it the "cornerstone of academia." AAUP associate general secretary Jordan Kurland praised Hardin, Williams, and others directly involved at Central Arkansas for providing "a dramatic example of what administration and faculty, working together, can accomplish in furtherance of the common good."

The University of Central Arkansas AAUP chapter, which received the Beatrice G. Konheim Award in 2002 for "outstanding achievement in advancing the Association's objectives," formally thanked Williams for her role in achieving the censure removal, presenting her with a plaque in appreciation of her "exemplary service, articulate leadership, and perseverance in defense of academic freedom and shared governance."