Inside Higher Ed: Turmoil Over 70 Faculty Layoffs at Clark Atlanta
On Wednesday, a delegation of faculty leaders at Clark Atlanta University gave President Carlton E. Brown a list of 46 specific ideas for saving money. One of them was cutting the salaries of all faculty members by up to 10 percent. According to faculty leaders, he didn’t inform them of his plans for the next day.
On Thursday, the university announced the layoffs of 100 employees, including 70 full-time faculty members. (While the university did not indicate the tenure status of those affected, faculty sources and a university spokeswoman both said that some have tenure.) Most of the dismissed professors were told to leave immediately and classes were called off Friday and today to allow for courses to be reassigned to other professors. That may not be easy: Officially Clark Atlanta has 230 faculty members, which would mean that the layoffs constitute about 30 percent of the faculty. Some professors say that 230 is a high figure and that the base is actually lower.
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