"Enrollment emergency": Clark University terminates 25% of faculty with no notice

The American Association of University Professors has released a report on the actions taken at Clark University in Atlanta in 2008 - 2009. In violation of that university's existing policies concerning the conditions that must be met for faculty to be terminated (specified, in that case, in the University's faculty handbook), the administration created a new category, an "enrollment emergency," and used it to terminate 25% of faculty on one month's notice.

This is a sobering tale, one that makes clear why the NFA is inclined to oppose proposals to modify existing provisions of the NSHE code which would create new categories of terminations.

Clearly the current budget crisis is going to require cooperation on all sides but there's no reason for faculty to propose, or support, changes that would weaken our hard-won protections and our fair contract rights.