AAUP Responds to Katrina's Impact on New Orleans Universities

Academe, Mar/Apr 2006 by Kurland, Jordan E

The damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina late last August on New Orleans and the Gult Coast region has been called the worst natural disaster ever experienced in the United States. The damage to institutions of higher education and their faculties, in New Orleans alone, has been immense. No major institution has closed down permanently, but all had to cease operating in their New Orleans locations during the fall 2005 semester. Some were able to resume in January, either in their previous locations or in make-shift facilities, while others will not be able to function on campus again until fall 2006 or even later.

At both private and public institutions, large numbers of faculty members, many of them with tenure, have suffered termination of appointment. Others have been placed on furlough, some for a fixed period but some apparently indefinitely. Yet others, spared thus far, are potential victims of massive layoffs to be announced this spring with the adoption of next year's budget. The total number, still growing, of college and university faculty members involuntarily released exceeds anything ever before experienced in higher education. The AAUP is providing what advice and assistance it can, calling when feasible for corrective action, in this ongoing volatile situation. A status report follows.

TULANE UNIVERSITY

Tulane University, with its highly regarded research activities and its comprehensive graduate and undergraduate programs, was the largest academic institution in New Orleans and, indeed, the city's biggest employer. Reaction at the university to Katrina's devastation came in dramatic fashion in early December, with the issuance of a detailed "plan for renewal" that had been formulated under the leadership of president Scott Cowen. The plan reduces Tulane's annual budget by some $60 million, largely through massive layoffs. Fourteen doctoral programs are being eliminated, as are five undergraduate majors. The school of engineering is ending as a separate entity, with all but two of the engineering specialties discontinued. Hardest hit is the school of medicine, particularly its clinical operations, with faculty and staff redundant for the two hospitals continuing to function in the heavily depopulated city. A substantial majority of the layoffs has occurred in the medical school, which is losing an estimated 35 percent of its faculty. The loss elsewhere in the university has been estimated at 10 percent. The total number of full-time faculty members being released was estimated in the plan at 230. Cowen informed the AAUP in early February that the correct number is 166, but a new medical school dean in March set the number at 211 for that school alone.

Upon the announcement of the plan, Cowen telephoned AAUP general secretary Roger Bowen to inform him of what was being done, expressing an intent to proceed in accordance with applicable AAUP-supported guidelines. The Association's staff, after examining the plan and receiving information from the AAUP chapter officers and others on the Tulane faculty, wrote to convey sympathy over what Tulane and other Gulf Coast region universities and colleges have had to endure and to invite Cowen's comments on faculty concerns regarding the adequacy of faculty involvement in the formulation of the plan and of available procedures for individual professors to contest their having been selected for layoff. Responding to the staff's letter, the president described the consultation with faculty representatives and others in formulating the plan, and he stated that to his knowledge no one being released has been denied access to the review procedures provided in Tulane's faculty handbook. The staffin February notified the president that it was compiling further information from faculty members and monitoring particular cases where notice of termination is being challenged. A staff letter a month later conveyed continuing AAUP concern regarding shared governance and due process. The staff remains in close touch with the Tulane AAUP chapter, which has also been pursuing the issues of concern, and a March visit to the campus by Bowen featured a series of discussions with faculty individuals and groups.

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER

The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center is the New Orleans home for the medical school and other health-related programs of Louisiana's flagship public university. Like Tulane's medical school, the health sciences center was affected by the massive exodus of the city's residents after Katrina, which left far fewer in need of medical care. Late in November, the LSU board of supervisors declared the existence offeree majeure" at the health sciences center, thereby enabling the administration to place on furlough those faculty members deemed to be redundant. Up to 277 professors, or approximately 19 percent of the faculty, have been adversely affected, according to published reports. Many of them were furloughed, without pay, as of December 1, with a furlough defined as a temporary leave that "may lead to eventual termination."