BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The top national organization of university professors has censured Louisiana State University for alleged mistreatment of a coastal researcher fired after Hurricane Katrina and a biology professor removed from a class for alleged harsh grading.
LSU is the only public flagship university on the national list of those censured Saturday by the American Association of University Professors, The Advocate (http://bit.ly/MV4wqf) reported Sunday.
Recommended Stories
LSU interim President William Jenkins said he wanted to review the document before commenting.
AAUP also censured Southeastern Louisiana and Northwestern State universities, for allegedly using state budget cuts and academic program eliminations as excuses to fire some tenured faculty members. University of Louisiana System officials put an extensive critique of the association’s report on a website.
LSU’s censure focused on the dismissal of Ivor van Heerden in 2009 and the 2010 removal of Dominique Homberger from a biology class.
The AAUP said van Heerden lost his job for speaking out against the Army Corps of Engineers on controversial issues in a “politically charged atmosphere.”
Van Heerden, who made blistering assessments of the Corps after Hurricane Katrina’s high waters brought down the levees, is suing LSU for his job. U.S. District Judge James J. Brady has thrown out parts of the lawsuit, but the litigation continues.
On the Homberger issue, LSU Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope has said the university and faculty are working to implement policies to ensure actions to remove professors from classes are not taken unfairly again.
There are now 52 schools on the AAUP’s censure list, including Nicholls State University and Our Lady of Holy Cross College in Louisiana.
Outgoing LSU Chancellor Michael Martin said he can only make limited comments because the van Heerden matter remains in litigation. Martin said LSU has and will continue to follow proper university policies and grievance procedures.
“Whatever they (AAUP officials) do, it appears they only have one side of the story,” Martin said Saturday. “But the AAUP does what the AAUP does.”
___
Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
