[Vision2020] National Sanctions Loom for Idaho State University

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Hail to the Vision!

This is my radio commentary/column for this week. It is really amazing to realize how insecure and paranoid the ISU administration is.  Five minutes after the Board voted on Feb. 17 the locks on the ISU Faculty Senate meeting room and offices were changed!

Currently my union and the AAUP are engaged in a collaborative effort to organize faculty at large public universities.  Bargaining as a coalition, the AFT/AAUP now has union contracts on six campuses across the nation.  The AFT, AAUP, and the National Education Association represent 440,000 faculty on over 1,100 campuses. Sadly, some of the faculty have now had their collective bargaining rights severely restricted.

The full version is attached as a PDF file.

Yours for teacher and union solidarity forever,

Nick Gier, President, Higher Education Council, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO and also AAUP member

NATIONAL SANCTION LOOMS FOR IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious organization protecting faculty rights. About 210 professional and educational organizations have endorsed the "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," which the AAUP jointly formulated with the Association of American Colleges and Universities. 
 
The basic enunciation of principles of faculty governance in American higher education is the "1966 Statement on College and University Government," which the AAUP developed in cooperation with the American Council on Education and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
  
Since 1991 the AAUP has had a policy of sanctioning colleges and university administrations for “substantial noncompliance with standards of academic governance.” This sanction list serves a warning to prospective employees that these campuses do not respect basic faculty rights in the area of institutional governance.

Currently there are four institutions on this black list of sanctioned administrations. They are Antioch University, Lindenwood College, Elmira College, and Miami Dade College—not an especially distinguished group of schools.

The AAUP has now launched an investigation of the suspension of the Faculty Senate at Idaho State University.  At its February 17 meeting the State Board of Education approved this action at the request of ISU President Arthur Vailas without any faculty input or discussion.  Incredibly enough, the locks on the senate’s meeting room had been changed five minutes after the Board voted 250 miles away.

In a February 22 letter to Vailas, AAUP’s Associate Secretary Gregory Scholtz gave him until March 1 provide an adequate rationale for the action or the AAUP would initiate an investigation. Vailas did respond six days later, but in a March 3 letter Scholtz found that he had failed to show that “there were extraordinary factors for the actions that were taken” against his duly elected senators.
  
One factor was absolutely clear. On February 10 the ISU faculty voted by a margin of 4-1 that they had no confidence in Vailas as president.  Last spring they had voted by a similar margin against ISU Provost Gary Olson. The conclusion is inescapable: the dismissal of the senate was an act of revenge—pure and simple.  

AAUP’s General Secretary Gary Rhoades has authorized his staff to conduct an investigation and prepare a report on the ISU crisis for AAUP’s annual meeting in June.  Knowing the facts as I do, I believe a vote for sanction against both ISU and the Board is a foregone conclusion.

In 1981 the University of Idaho declared financial exigency in its College of Agriculture and laid off 17 faculty members (11 were tenured).  I personally interviewed each of them, and only one—tenured Professor Lois Pace in the 4-H program—was willing to challenge her dismissal. 

The faculty union raised $40,000 for her legal defense and in 1984 Judge Ronald Schilling ruled that the UI had failed to prove a financial emergency.  Seven other faculty members joined her suit and the total settlements were over $1 million. 

The AAUP launched an investigation and found that the UI had violated the rights of Professor Pace and her tenured colleagues. The UI was placed on the censure list in 1983.  The AAUP sanctions institutions for undermining faculty governance, but it censures those who violate tenure rights and academic freedom.

In 1989 a UI committee selected Elizabeth Zinser as the finalist as the new president. Before assuming office, Zinser insisted that the UI adhere to the highest academic and professional standards. The Board changed its financial exigency policies in accordance with AAUP guidelines.  Censure was lifted in 1989 and Zinser became the UI’s 14th president.

In February of 2010 the Board voted to give campus executives full power to dismiss staff and reduce programs during financial emergencies.  The Lois Pace case had given Idaho’s professors some of the best lay-off procedures in the nation, but now they are in shambles.  The promises that the Board made in 1989 in order to erase AAUP censure have been broken.

Far too often Idaho is the source of embarrassing news, and academic sanction will be yet another black eye for our state.  The solution to the ISU crisis is simple: the Board must rescind its decision to undermine faculty democracy at ISU.

UI Professor Emeritus Nick Gier is an AAUP member and also serves as President of the Higher Education Council of the Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO.  
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