Jackson Free Press

Facing steep budget cuts this year and a bleak outlook for the next two years, the state College Board gave initial approval yesterday to a policy change that would allow university presidents greater flexibility in firing tenured and tenure-track professors.

Gov. Haley Barbour's budget recommendation for 2011 allots $61 million for general state support for the state's eight public universities, a 15.5 percent decrease from 2010 numbers. The state Legislature's recommendation is only slightly less dramatic, showing $42 million less in general state support, a 10.7 percent drop.

The Board expanded the reasons for which contracted employees can be fired to include financial exigency and reductions in programs. It also approved a change that would reduce the minimum amount of notice required for firing a tenured professor from nine months to six months, if the Board declares financial exigency. Another approved change eliminates the right of faculty denied tenure to appear before the Board.

The board will vote on final approval for the policy changes at its January meeting.

Robert Kreiser, a senior program officer with the American Association of University Professors, said that by relaxing the restrictions on firing tenured and tenure-track faculty, the College Board opens the door to firings based more on unpopularity than performance.

In making it easier for presidents to fire faculty, "there's the possibility that institutions will single out individual faculty members who have incurred the administration's displeasure and use financial reasons as an excuse," Kreiser said. "It has a potentially adverse effect on academic freedom."

Mississippi Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds told Board members that university presidents requested the expanded firing rules.

"The reason we're bringing this to you is, at some institutions, they need this type of flexibility," Bounds said at yesterday's meeting. "We tried to work the policies in a way that if universities need the flexibility, they can take it; if they don't, they can stay where they are. The policies that you are going to see aren't the only tools that presidents have asked to have in their tool belt."

School presidents have also requested authority to consolidate administrative operations with other universities, increase standard teaching loads and eliminate colleges and degree programs, Bounds said, although he did not request immediate action from the Board on those issues.

Previous Comments

ID

154413

Comment

u hit the nail on the head,,, rumor is that the agencies already have compiled lists of those employees eligible for retirement....

Author

lanier77

Date

2009-12-21T13:07:27-06:00