Seven months after being furloughed without pay or benefits by Southern University at New Orleans, Louise Kaltenbaugh doesn’t know which is worse: the drain on her bank account or the drain on her self-esteem.
The 64-year-old scholar, who was a tenured associate professor of education with 22 years of service to the historically black public university, was furloughed four days before Christmas, when Southern eliminated the secondary-education department. She has been fighting to regain her job, or land another one, ever since.
“Psychologically, it makes you wonder, particularly after getting letters of rejection or nothing at all, whether you’re still worthy,” Ms. Kaltenbaugh says.
The professor, who is caring for an ailing husband and raising two school-age grandchildren, has had to take close to $6,000 a month out of savings to cover health insurance and lost income. “That’s money that we had squirreled away over all the years I’ve been teaching,” she says.
Because her husband has had six heart bypass surgeries and is diabetic, the couple needs to stay near his doctors and hospitals. Her grandchildren are happy at their suburban New Orleans high school. The family can’t just pack up and leave, but few universities in New Orleans are hiring these days.
Ms. Kaltenbaugh has sent letters and made telephone calls to administrators at Southern but says she has never received an explanation for why she was furloughed or any hint of whether she might be rehired.
“I feel like they’ve dumped us in a deep well and put the lid on and just forgotten about us,” she says.
University officials have said the 60 faculty furloughs and 19 program cuts were unavoidable in the aftermath of a hurricane that caused an estimated $350-million worth of damage to the campus. And while the American Association of University Professors has protested the lack of faculty input into the cuts, administrators have responded that they were in a crisis that didn’t allow them to follow normal procedures.
That has not appeased Ms. Kaltenbaugh and five other furloughed faculty members, all of whom were tenured, who have jointly filed a lawsuit against the university. Because of that lawsuit, Rose M. Duhon-Sells, the former dean of education who is now vice chancellor for academic affairs, declined to comment on Ms. Kaltenbaugh’s case.
Being so close to retirement works against her, as well, Ms. Kaltenbaugh says. “Because of my age, no one wants to touch me,” she says. “Others tell me I’m overqualified because I have a Ph.D. I may be, but darn — I still need a job.”
After explaining her dilemma to an administrator with the local public-school system, she was encouraged to apply for two jobs in administration and teaching. But when her would-be employers learned that she was still considered an employee of Southern and could be called back at any time, the job went to someone else.
In September, if she still hasn’t been rehired, Ms. Kaltenbaugh says she may consider joining the ranks of former faculty members who are selling shoes or flipping burgers. That, she says, would at least allow her to slow the hemorrhaging from her retirement savings while she waits for her legal case to be resolved.
“We’re still in limbo,” she says with a sigh. “If I were Catholic, it would be purgatory.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Special Report Volume 53, Issue 2, Page A12
