Union warns UL System tenure could be in jeopardy

Reports during the summer that four tenured chemistry professors were fired and re-hired in lesser

positions were exaggerated, ULM Chemistry Department Head Richard Thurlkill said.

The American Association for University Professors issued a statement in June criticizing the University of Louisiana System for Southeastern’s firing of tenured French professors after their French program was cut. The fired professors were then offered jobs as instructors with considerably less pay.

The statement warned that ULM planned to do the same to its tenured chemistry professors since the degree program was cut last spring.

Thurlkill said that no one in the ULM Chemistry department was fired or reassigned.

“That was never really presented as a viable option here,” Thurlkill said. “Someone may have mentioned it at some point in time but not as an official statement or definite possibility.”

Thurlkill said the AAUP was concerned about ULM because of what happened at Southeastern. He felt the statement was more of a warning the union would come down hard on ULM if the same thing happened here.

Though he does not think professors will be fired, Thurlkill does admit it is possible they could be. However, professors may begin leaving on their own because they will not have students to help with their research.

Thurlkill said potential professors look for a ready supply of students to assist with research. If no bachelor’s program exists, the pool of potential student researchers shrinks, which in turn could drive away professors wanting to continue their research.

“If [the pool of students] dries up, and it will, we won’t have a ready supply of students. That’s going to damage our research,” said Thurlkill.

Thurlkill said he expects the program to experience a near-complete personnel turnover within the next two or three years. A similar turnover has already happened once after the University cut the Chemistry master’s program a few years ago.

One tenure-tract professor has already left to pursue research elsewhere. Former assistant professor Jason Carr left ULM to conduct research at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. His position has been filled as an instructor position.

The AAUP saw the actions of Southeastern as an attack on tenure, a policy the union says should be protected.

“If senior professors with tenure can be fired and then immediately offered employment as short-term instructors, then tenure is essentially meaningless in the UL System,” said the statement by Michael F. Berube, chair of the AAUP Subcommittee on Program Closures.