Governance Investigations

College and University Governance: Idaho State University

Report, prepared by the Association’s staff, concerning the decision by the Idaho State Board of Education to suspend the operation and bylaws of the faculty senate at Idaho State University and to direct ISU president Arthur C. Vailas to “implement an interim faculty advisory structure.”

College and University Governance: The University of Virginia Governing Board’s Attempt to Remove the President

This report documents a major breakdown in governance at UVA, focusing on the role of the board of visitors and its rector, Helen Dragas, who initiated the effort to force the president’s resignation. It finds that the events at the university resulted from “a failure by those charged with institutional oversight to understand the institution over which they presided and to engage with the administration and the faculty in an effort to be well informed.”

Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance Violations at NEIU

An AAUP investigating committee’s report published in December deals with a case of tenure denial at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. The candidate, an assistant professor of linguistics, had been recommended for tenure successively during the 2011–12 academic year by his tenured linguistics colleagues, his department chair, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and, unanimously, the faculty’s elected University Personnel Committee.

Report Finds Partisan Ideology and Political Ambition Motivated Changes at Maricopa Community Colleges

The AAUP released a governance investigation report about the Maricopa Community Colleges district governing board’s decisions to repeal the entire faculty manual, put restrictions on the faculty’s participation in institutional decision making, and terminate a “meet-and-confer” process. Investigators found evidence which strongly suggests that the board’s intervention was an engineered performance of political theater motivated by partisan ideology.

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