Trustees at Auburn U. Dissolve Faculty Senate and Take Control of Curriculum, Sparking Outrage
“Faculty have not simply lost shared governance structures; they have lost their primary mechanism for collective voice.”
The folks at the AAUP are very unhappy about this.
The College Fix reports:
Auburn trustees spark faculty backlash after taking full control of curriculum, dissolving senate
The Auburn University Board of Trustees disbanded the Faculty Senate on Friday and took full authority over the school’s academic matters.
The board unanimously approved the two changes with no debate and will now control “course offerings, curriculum, degree requirements and academic credentials,” according to Inside Higher Ed.
This mimics a new Alabama law that limits faculty senates to an advisory-only role, even though the new law doesn’t technically apply to the school as a land-grant institution.
Further, the board is replacing the Faculty Senate with a new group, called the Presidential Academic Advisory Council, which will create “a direct, structured and professionally responsible channel for faculty perspective to the president, provost and senior academic leadership,” according to the Board of Trustees’ memorandum.
The council will include “one elected faculty member from each academic college, selected by a vote of the faculty member’s respective college” and “one faculty member from each academic college appointed by the President.”
The decision has drawn criticism from faculty and the school’s American Association of University Professors chapter.
AAUP Senior Program Officer Mark Criley told Inside Higher Ed the changes represent the “end of shared governance” at Auburn.
“If you’re designing that body and selecting half of its membership, then you’re losing the frank, candid, informed judgment of the faculty,” Criley said.
He also expressed concern that faculty members who ask difficult questions or challenge authority may not be selected to the council.
In a statement, the AAUP chapter wrote, “Faculty are not employees in a corporate structure to be managed through top-down authority.”
“They are experts entrusted with educating students and advancing knowledge, and that work depends on collaboration, shared governance, and strong academic freedom protections,” it wrote.
Auburn educational leadership Professor Lisa Kensler also criticised the changes in an open letter published by The Auburn Plainsman.
“Faculty have not simply lost shared governance structures; they have lost their primary mechanism for collective voice,” she wrote.
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