Tag Archives: Clark Atlanta U

When Tenure Means Nothing

Inside Higher Ed: When Tenure Means Nothing

Clark Atlanta University violated the rights of 55 faculty members — 20 of them with tenure — when it eliminated their jobs without faculty consultation or due process, and without regard to whether or not they had tenure, according to a report issued Wednesday by the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP called the dismissals — covering a quarter of the faculty — “outrageous” and “especially egregious.”

The historically black university said at the time that it was responding to an “enrollment emergency,” and repeatedly denied that it was facing “financial exigency.” The latter state is one that the AAUP requires for the elimination of the jobs of tenured professors (although even in such cases, the association’s guidelines require faculty participation in the process, which was largely absent at Clark Atlanta). Not only do AAUP guidelines not allow for such job eliminations as a result of enrollment declines, but the report questioned whether the declines were as significant as the university claimed.

AAUP Report Slams Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

The Chronicle: AAUP Report Slams Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

The American Association of University Professors issued a report today accusing Clark Atlanta University of numerous violations of faculty rights in connection with its dismissal of about a fourth of its faculty members last year.

The report, by an AAUP investigative committee, concludes that the university’s administration declared a nonexistent “enrollment emergency” last February as a pretext for firing about 55 full-time faculty members without due process.

AAUP Plans to Investigate Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

The Chronicle: AAUP Plans to Investigate Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

The American Association of University Professors today informed Clark Atlanta University of plans to investigate the university over its dismissal of 70 full-time faculty members in February.

In a letter to Clark Atlanta’s president, Carlton E. Brown, the associate secretary of the AAUP, B. Robert Kreiser, wrote that the institution’s “massive dismissals of faculty” raised “key issues of academic freedom, tenure, and due process” that remain unresolved after two months of communications with the university. Accordingly, Mr. Kreiser said, the AAUP plans to establish an investigative panel to determine whether the association’s committee on academic freedom and tenure needs to take action against the university.