Over 100 Southern University faculty members received a not-so-merry Christmas gift during the winter break; letters informing them that they had been fired and not to return to the campus this month.
But according to Southern officials, they were just following the orders of Gov. Bobby Jindal, who told the university they needed to cut a certain amount of faculty to meet budget requirements.
A few days later, Chancellor Kofi Lomotey told The Advocate Jindal increased their budget, now requiring them to terminate at least 10 employees.
Lomotey also noted that the fired faculty members’ contracts ended at the end of the 2008 semester.
Former Faculty Senate President and Assistant Professor of History Eva Baham does not believe Lomotey nor the administration had a clear grasp on the effects of firing faculty—at the governor’s request or not.
“Of course everyone wants to keep their jobs,” Baham said, “but what most professors were worried about were the students. What would happen to them when they walked into classes Wednesday and there was no one there to instruct them?”
Although Baham is happy the number of those dismissed decreased from 100 to 10, she is still concerned that Lomoety and the administration do not have students’ best interest at heart.
In a meeting with the faculty and administration, Baham presented the Board of Supervisors with a sample survey of what would have happened if the original firings had taken place.
“The biology department would have taken a cut of eight faculty members, who are required to teach at least four classes. On average, there are about 35 students per classes…meaning 1,120 students would have been effected.” According to Baham’s survey, the College of Humanities and Arts and the College of Science would have taken a loss of 78 professors.
“What they don’t realize is a cut of that magnitude would have devastated the university. Almost all students have to take an English, math, history or biology course. What are students supposed to do when a class they need is only offered at one time and they cannot take it?”
In an Advocated article published Jan. 15, Lomotey said students would be allowed to take independent study courses if their schedule does not allow them to take the course, a route Baham said is reckless.
“Independent study is okay for a senior-level course, but what about 200 and 300 level classes?”
No matter how slight the faculty cuts were, students and faculty were met with frustration and confusion Wednesday and Thursday when they attended classes that either had no professor or were canceled.
The university posted on its Web site a list over 150 classes that were canceled, 82 of them were in the sciences, but students were told more cuts were to come.
On Thursday, Student Government Association President Jamal Taylor visited the department deans and chairs because students told him their classes were dropped and were unable to find replacements—many were juniors and seniors.
“These class cancellations were made by the provosts and Office of Academic Affairs without any regards to the deans, chairs, professors or students. Before releasing any faculty, the administration should have taking the students’ well-being into account to ensure students had all the classes they needed to graduate.”
Taylor went on to say the remaining professors are being asked to take a heavier course load without being included in decision-making meetings.
Categories:
Canceled classes cause chaos
January 16, 2009
0