AAUP Weighs In Against Cuts at U. of Southern Maine

For the second time this year, the American Association of University Professors has criticized program cuts and layoffs at the University of Southern Maine. Earlier this year, AAUP joined an effort to prevent roughly two dozen layoffs. This time around, far more layoffs are on the table: the university’s new president plans to eliminate between a fifth and a sixth of Southern Maine's faculty and roughly a seventh of its staff -- that's 50 professors and 100 staffers -- and to embark on a vast restructuring of its academic departments. AAUP is arguing that the financial rationale for the cuts and the changes is unsound.