Long before the levees broke in Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana has struggled. Some of the disasters are problems from within the state such as corruption and political incompetence while others are outside the state’s control such as the BP oil spill or the FEMA response after Katrina. It is no surprise that the higher education system of a state struggles when a state has taken as many body blows as Louisiana in the last ten years. Decreases in state support of higher education has led to the closing of academic programs and LSU even threatened to declare financial exigency. However, the latest round of problems for LSU are a manmade disaster that leads me to say to future prospective LSU faculty: Don’t take a faculty job at LSU.
LSU has a long history of problems regarding the way the institution treats faculty.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the leading group focused on faculty and academic freedom, has placed LSU on the association’s censure list for several years.
Following Katrina, a research professor at LSU argued that the Army Corps of Engineers was to blame for the failure of the levees. As a result, he became a thorn in the side of the federal government and the university. He was let go.
In another case, a tenured professor in biology was removed from a course in the middle of the semester because her grading was too tough.
In the most recent example, a faculty member in education was denied promotion to full professor and later dismissed because the university claims she used foul language and sex jokes. The charges surfaced after a local superintendent complained about the professor to the university. Despite numerous positive reviews from faculty colleagues and lower level administrators, Provost Stuart Bell (now president at the University of Alabama) did not recommend her promotion.
Later, the university moved to dismiss her because of her use of profanity and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (although no evidence has come to light regarding the latter charge).
A faculty committee reviewed her case and unanimously decided she should not be dismissed. Chancellor F. King Alexander overruled the recommendation and still terminated her.
I don’t know if the faculty member should have been fired. But I know a faculty committee of her peers determined unanimously that she shouldn’t. And I know the university chancellor ignored the committee’s finding.
Each of these cases might be explained by the particulars of the case. Maybe the faculty member needed to be let go. Maybe a hard decision had to be made. When viewed in isolation, this may be the case.
However, taken together, these cases demonstrate a pattern of LSU not respecting the role of faculty generally and the principle of academic freedom in particular.
LSU ignores best practices in evaluating faculty and does not follow the disciplinary policies recommended by the AAUP (and adopted by nearly every university in the country).
I can not recommend that a prospective candidate consider joining the LSU faculty. If the university’s administration is unwilling or unable to support faculty in some pretty basic ways (i.e. due process as outlined by the AAUP), I would suggest LSU is incompatible with supporting high quality teaching, research, and service expected of a research university.
The importance of faculty autonomy and academic freedom is central and necessary to fulfilling one’s role as a research faculty member. If LSU is apathetic— or worse antithetical— to this aspect of faculty work, the only response to to tell every prospective job candidate: Don’t take a faculty job at LSU.
