PORTLAND, Maine — The American Association of University Professors has censured the University of Southern Maine for what it called “flagrant violations” of shared governance and academic freedom stemming from recent cuts at the state’s second-largest university.
The national faculty advocacy group approved the censure in a vote during its annual meeting on June 13. Three other campuses across the nation also were censured.
USM eliminated 51 faculty positions and five programs during the past year, while accepting early retirements and resignations from dozens of other faculty and staff, as part of an effort to offset a $16 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1.
That prompted an investigation by the American Association of University Professors, culminating in a report released by the organization in May. The censure decision wasn’t unexpected, considering the language and findings of that report.
The association argued that USM overreacted and overreached in its recent cuts to programs and faculty and disputed that serious financial problems exist at the University of Maine System. The report claimed the University of Maine System is in “strong financial standing” and that USM unnecessarily fired tenured professors and shuttered programs vital to its pursuit of a Metropolitan University designation. A metropolitan university is one that forges community partnerships to help fulfill its mission.
USM and University of Maine System officials have roundly criticized the report as being one-sided and containing multiple inaccuracies. Arguing the report was “unworthy of serious consideration” and that it had a predetermined outcome, USM officials questioned how the American Association of University Professors could argue that USM or the system are on a sustainable financial footing.
University officials have said USM isn’t beholden to the American Association of University Professors or its guiding documents, and that the university acted in compliance with collective bargaining agreements as it made the cuts.
Some faculty members disagree, citing USM’s governance constitution, which includes the passage: “The provisions of this constitution are based largely on the widely accepted academic traditions and principles expressed in the American Association of University Professors Policy Documents and Reports, 1984 Edition.”
Associate English professor Lorrayne Carrol, who heads USM’s American Association of University Professors chapter, said the censure “corroborates longstanding student, faculty and staff concerns about decision making at USM.”
She said her chapter plans to work closely with incoming USM President Glenn Cummings to ensure the administration “abide[s] by USM’s constitution” in the future. If the university does so, it could be taken off the American Association of University Professors’ censure list, she said.
Cummings said in a statement shortly after the weekend’s censure announcement that the university would involve students, faculty and staff, as well as community, business and government partners as they “work collaboratively to seek ideas and solutions that will grow and move USM forward to meet the needs of our students and our community.”
In other words, toward a Metropolitan University designation.
“Shared governance does not liberate us from either civility or reality,” Cummings said. “It requires all of us to contribute to the common welfare of the university above our individual agendas and personal interests.”
He said past “episodes must not dictate or limit the vision for our future.”
Also censured over the weekend were the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Felician College in New Jersey. The American Association of University Professors also voted to end the censure of Yeshiva University in New York, which was levied in 1982 after the university laid off three faculty members for financial reasons. That leaves 56 institutions from across the country on the American Association of University Professors’ censure list.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.