This was sent to me by a colleague at my College. janice Janice Klein Director, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Kendall College [log in to unmask] www.mitchellmuseum.org This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com) was forwarded to you from: _________________________________________________________________ This article is available online at this address: http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/03/2003031103n.htm - The text of the article is below - _ Tuesday, March 11, 2003 U. of Nebraska at Lincoln Plans to Lay Off 8 Tenured Professors in Budget Cuts By ROBIN WILSON The chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln announced plans on Monday to eliminate a master's-degree program in museum studies and lay off the eight tenured faculty members who are affiliated with it. The announcement, which came as part of the initial phase of the Lincoln campus's response to a $21-million cut in state funds, marks the first time in the university's history that tenured faculty members will lose their jobs because of financial problems. Nebraska also appears to be the first major research university to cut faculty positions during the current economic downturn. "This is not the way I wanted to be nationally visible," Harvey Perlman, Lincoln's chancellor, said in an interview. Besides the tenured positions, an additional 47 non-tenure-track faculty and staff positions are scheduled to be cut. In an e-mail message informing professors and staff members of the proposed reductions, Mr. Perlman said the institution would try to find other jobs within the university for the eight tenured professors. But he said the institution "must face the ugly reality that this will not be possible for everyone." The cuts announced on Monday total $7.5-million. Mr. Perlman, who plans to announce the rest of the reductions on April 1 and June 18, said: "I see no way that I can respond to reductions of the size we're looking at without implicating other tenured faculty." The positions eliminated in this first round of cuts will affect 55 full- and part-time faculty and staff members, university officials said. Of those, only the museum-studies professors are tenured faculty members. Eliminating the professors, the master's program, and the research division of the Nebraska State Museum will save the institution $1.1-million. Before the cuts can take place, the proposal must be reviewed by Lincoln's Academic Planning Committee, which includes faculty members. The committee will make recommendations to the chancellor, but he will make final decisions on the budget cuts. Mr. Perlman also announced on Monday that the institution had started a Faculty and Staff Budget Reduction Impact Fund to help those who will be laid off, and said that he and his wife had contributed $10,000 to the fund. The eight museum-studies professors will lose their jobs a year from now. Some of them questioned whether the university would violate rules of the American Association of University Professors by laying off tenured faculty members without first declaring "financial exigency." The university has not made such a declaration, and might be leery of doing so because of the alarm that might cause among students, parents, and donors. The AAUP defines exigency as a financial situation that threatens the survival of the institution. According to AAUP rules, institutions can eliminate programs for academic reasons and lay off the faculty members affiliated with them. But if an institution cuts a program for financial reasons and lays off its professors, it must first have declared exigency. Mr. Perlman said the university had not violated AAUP guidelines. He said the museum-studies program would be eliminated "for educational purposes" and added, "I am protecting and preserving the quality of the education our students receive and the programs that remain by eliminating some programs rather than dropping everyone across the board. I think that's the highest educational purpose." Hugh H. Genoways, a professor of museum studies, described himself in an interview as "one of the eight tenured faculty who are getting whacked." He is 63 years old and was not planning to retire for a few more years. "If you've looked at your TIAA-CREF, it's not the time to be thinking about retirement," he said, referring to the organization that manages pension funds for many academics. Margaret R. Bolick, another tenured professor who will lose her job, has been at Nebraska since 1978. She said the university had told professors that even if it could find them new positions, those posts would be off the tenure track. The museum-studies program enrolls about 50 graduate students, 20 of whom will finish their degrees this semester. The remainder "are up the creek," said Ms. Bolick, since they will not be finished with their degrees by the time the program is closed. In other cuts announced on Monday, the university said that it would: Save $1.8-million by eliminating the subsidy to Nebraska veterinary students who earn their degrees through a cooperative program with Kansas State University. Eliminate $837,333 for the Nebraska Forest Service, which operates community forest programs and helps with wildfire control and pest management. Ten "faculty-equivalent positions" will be cut, although none of those have tenure or tenure-track status. Two tenured professors in the service will be reassigned full time to the School of Natural Resource Sciences and retain their tenured status. Cut $750,000 from the student-affairs office, a move that would drastically reduce the availability of student-counseling services at the university. _________________________________________________________________ You may visit The Chronicle as follows: http://chronicle.com _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . 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