The Catholic U. of America would be able to lay off tenured professors under an “academic renewal” plan that the Board of Trustees will consider in June.
A controversial cost-cutting plan that would allow Catholic University of America to lay off tenured professors has cleared a major hurdle.
The university’s Academic Senate, which includes faculty members and administrators, voted 35 to 8 last week to send the so-called academic-renewal proposal to the Board of Trustees for a final vote. The plan, designed to close a $3.5-million budget gap and stem enrollment declines, has generated fierce debate on the campus, in Washington, D.C., about the strategic direction of the university, the marketability of its Catholic identity, and the fragility of tenure in the face of financial challenges.
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Tim Sloan, AFP via Getty Images
The Catholic U. of America would be able to lay off tenured professors under an “academic renewal” plan that the Board of Trustees will consider in June.
A controversial cost-cutting plan that would allow Catholic University of America to lay off tenured professors has cleared a major hurdle.
The university’s Academic Senate, which includes faculty members and administrators, voted 35 to 8 last week to send the so-called academic-renewal proposal to the Board of Trustees for a final vote. The plan, designed to close a $3.5-million budget gap and stem enrollment declines, has generated fierce debate on the campus, in Washington, D.C., about the strategic direction of the university, the marketability of its Catholic identity, and the fragility of tenure in the face of financial challenges.
Andrew V. Abela, the university’s provost, has said he hopes to cut 35 full-time professors, or about 9 percent of the faculty, through voluntary retirements and buyouts. He has argued, however, that the plan’s approval would authorize the university to eliminate full-time, tenured professors, if need be.
A final version of the proposal, which was made public this week, removed a previous reference to the possible “elimination of tenured positions.” But that change appears more cosmetic than substantive, as the amended plan retains language about the general authority of the university to terminate full-time professors, presumably tenured or otherwise, in a manner that the university’s Faculty Handbook had not envisioned.
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The Faculty Handbook prescribes that the university can lay off tenured professors only in the event of program eliminations, for cause, or after a declaration of financial exigency. None of those circumstances apply to this plan, which has been billed as a strategy for simultaneously raising the university’s prestige and reducing costs.
The senate’s vote is consultative, and some professors stressed that approving the plan’s referral to the board was not the same as an endorsement. Still, the vote was seen by supporters as an important step in legitimizing a plan that has generated pockets of vociferous opposition. A faculty committee had described the plan’s approach to cutting tenured professors as “playing with fire,” and the provost responded by accusing critics of “spreading half-truths and fear” about the proposal.
The board is slated to take up the proposal on June 5.
Jack Stripling was a senior writer at The Chronicle, where he covered college leadership, particularly presidents and governing boards. Follow him on Twitter @jackstripling.
