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Another robust message from AAUP to DePaul

APPEAL RESPONSE

08.20.2007 | http://www.aaup.org

By B. Robert Kreiser, Associate Secretary

VIA FACSIMILE (312-362-6822)

August 20, 2007

The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.
President
DePaul University
1 East Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60604-2287

Dear President Holtschneider:

We have not previously responded to your letter of July 31, because we were awaiting permission, requested in my letter to you of August 6 and also in a telephone call to your office last week, to share your letter with Professors Larudee and Finkelstein and invite their comments. We regret not having heard back from you about our request.

We appreciate that the tenure candidacies of both Professors Finkelstein and Larudee were reviewed by their faculty peers at three different institutional levels under the procedures set forth in DePaul’s official regulations, and we have no basis for questioning whether the pro-cess followed in the conduct of those reviews accorded with the university’s procedures. We also appreciate that the DePaul handbook, consistent with AAUP-recommended standards, provides that the president may set aside the recommendation of the University Board on Promotion and Tenure (UBPT) only “in rare circumstances and for compelling reasons,” and that you accepted that body’s recommendations in all cases that came before you this past year. Our Association has no quarrel with your statement that “[t]he fact that some individ-uals would have liked a different result in some of the cases is not a proper basis for an appeal.” Nor do we question your further statement that “the fact that the UBPT reached a different result [from] the lower tenure review committee is not in itself a violation of uni-versity procedure nor a basis for an appeal.” Our concerns arise when you go on to assert that “there is simply no basis for any claim that the UBPT failed to uphold the standards and processes set forth in the Faculty Handbook.” In our view, it is precisely that assertion as well as the question whether the administration similarly failed that bear on the claims by Professors Finkelstein and Larudee that impermissible considerations—involving violations of their academic freedom—contributed significantly to the adverse decisions in their cases.

You state that “the section of the Faculty Handbook detailing the promotion and tenure procedures is clear that the decision of the president is ‘final’ and that there is no right to appeal that decision.” The “Evaluation of Faculty” section of the handbook does indeed provide that the “president shall make final decisions regarding promotion and/or the granting of tenure.” That section of the document is silent, however, regarding the right of appeal of an adverse decision in such cases. A final decision by the president about the merits of a candidacy for tenure does not appear to us to shield that decision from the “Appeal Procedure for Nonrenewal of Nontenured and Tenure-Track Faculty” that is set forth in the “Separation” section of the handbook. Its provisions, as I observed in my previous letter, track AAUP-recommended standards, which are intended to afford opportunity for appeals of adverse tenure decisions—a particular category of “Nonrenewal of Tenure-Track Faculty.” Again, in the view of the president of DePaul’s Faculty Council (and her fellow Council members), “the handbook guarantees certain rights for faculty members who have received adverse decisions in the retention, tenure, and promotion processes. One of these is the right to a review by an independent faculty body. This is clearly described in the handbook’s chapter on separation.” Affording a faculty member opportunity for appeal of an adverse tenure decision would not appear to preclude the president from making the final decision after the appeal has been heard.

Without affording Professors Finkelstein and Larudee opportunity for faculty review of their allegations, the administration, it seems to us, is allowing their claims of violation of aca-demic freedom to stand unrebutted. We urge again that you offer them such opportunity.

Sincerely,

B. Robert Kreiser
Associate Secretary

BRK:id

cc: Dr. Helmut P. Epp, Provost
Jose D. Padilla, Esq., Vice President and General Counsel
Dr. Charles S. Suchar, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Anne Clark Bartlett, President, Faculty Council
Professor Gil Gott, Chair, Faculty Governance Council, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Michael A. McIntyre, Director, International Studies Program and
President, AAUP Chapter
Professor Michael L. Budde, Chair, Department of Political Science
Professor Norman G. Finkelstein
Professor Mehrene E. Larudee



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