AAUP Condemns UNC System, Censures Linfield

The Council of the American Association of University Professors voted to condemn the University of North Carolina system Thursday for having “contravened AAUP-supported governance standards by their failure to participate in joint planning and effort with the faculty, to engage in appropriate self-limitation, to consult the faculty meaningfully when changing search and appointment procedures, and to fulfill their responsibility to serve as their institutions’ champions when their support was urgently needed.” Specifically, the AAUP cited “the 2015 closure of three of the system’s university-based policy centers, the nonreappointment of distinguished professor of law Eric Muller to the UNC Press board, and the adoption of a policy implementing the 2017 North Carolina state ‘Free Speech’ legislation on UNC’s seventeen campuses.”

UNC has defended those actions in the past.

The AAUP Council also:

• Censured Linfield University for firing Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a tenured English professor who spoke up about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by members of the university’s board. The university said, “In light of the legal issues surrounding litigation and the legal claims likely to be at issue, the university was not in a position to be able to participate or provide any information to the AAUP. Accordingly, the report was issued without an opportunity to hear the university’s side of these issues.”
• Lifted the 2019 censure of St. Edward’s University over the dismissal of tenure-track faculty members. The AAUP noted the existence of a new policy, adopted under a new president and approved by the faculty, “in which the burden of demonstrating adequate cause rests with the administration.”