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<font size=4>Hi Joe,<br><br>
If WSU has a financial exigency policy or program reduction procedures,
then it is true that the administration can fire tenured faculty
members. If the policies are anything like ours, the target must be
programs and not faculty. <br><br>
During the 1981 UI exigency I interviewed all 17 faculty on the lay-off
list, and in every case we heard the complaint that “dean has been
wanting to fire me for a long time.” We eventually won our suit
(over $1 million for 8 faculty members) because we were able to show that
the ag. dean had ordered $100,000 worth of computer equipment, which of
course undermined his claim of financial emergency. <br><br>
Tenure is not a myth. It's legally solid except for these
circumstances, and it serves primarily to protect academic freedom so
that Joe and I can research and teach controversial issues. <br><br>
Why don't some of you start an AFT chapter? In the late 70s I spent an
entire spring break signing up about 40 WSU faculty, but the Washington
AFT officials did not follow up. Granted, AAUP has the principles (I was
a member for many years) but AFT has the courage and resources to fight
for those principles.<br><br>
Hope that you and your department survive. <br><br>
Nick<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (Thanks for this quote Jennifer!)<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
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