Monday, August 28, 2006

By ANDREW MYTELKA

A special committee from the American Association of University Professors will meet, after all, with public-college officials in Louisiana this week as part of an investigation into layoffs, program cuts, and other moves at the colleges in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Two weeks ago, the AAUP committee appeared to be getting a rebuff from both public and private colleges in the state ( The Chronicle, August 15). But on Friday, an official of the association said representatives of two public-college systems, as well as the state's commissioner of higher education, would meet with the committee, probably on Wednesday, in New Orleans.

The committee's goal is to examine whether the institutions followed their own policies and procedures, as well as AAUP guidelines, in laying off tenured faculty members and cutting academic programs following last year's devastating hurricane. Committee members are also looking into whether faculty members had enough say in the changes and whether some academic policies and procedures can be ignored in such extreme circumstances.

Members of the committee, which plans to issue a report on those issues this fall, had hoped to meet with top administrators of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Loyola University New Orleans, Tulane University, and the University of New Orleans, all of which have restructured their programs since Katrina. The two private universities, Loyola and Tulane, have declined to meet with the committee.

At first, the public institutions did so as well. But according to Jordan E. Kurland, associate general secretary of the AAUP, the higher-education commissioner, E. Joseph Savoie, has now promised "full cooperation" with the committee and said he would meet with it. William L. Jenkins, the departing president of the Louisiana State University System, and Ralph Slaughter, president of the Southern University System, will also meet with the committee, Mr. Kurland said.

Both the Health Sciences Center and the University of New Orleans are part of the Louisiana State University System. Southern's New Orleans campus was destroyed by Katrina, and while it has shifted many programs online, nearly half of its faculty has been laid off. Mr. Kurland said it was possible that the committee would meet with the leaders of those individual campuses as well.

The public colleges had initially objected to the AAUP committee's plan for a private meeting, and had asked to see its questions in advance, but Mr. Kurland said the panel "didn't write new ground rules" in order to entice the college officials to attend. Their willingness to meet, he said, was "a serious move to cooperate with us."

Mr. Savoie could not be reached over the weekend to explain what had led the public colleges to decide to meet with the committee.

Mr. Kurland added that the AAUP had informed Loyola and Tulane of the public colleges' decision. But as of Friday, he said, the private institutions had not indicated they would follow suit.

Copyright © 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education