Following Due Process

Conversations among the faculty concerning a recent termination have raised great concerns about due process. Can a faculty member accused of poor job performance answer the charges? Is there an appeal process? Do faculty have any place to turn to express grievances? What are the conditions of faculty employment, and are they being respected?

These conversations reiterate the concerns I wrote about in late June ("Secrecy and Morale"): the university must make documents such as the faculty handbook and its grievance policy available to the faculty. Delaying year after year in getting approval on such documents makes it seem that they just do not matter to the administration and trustees. I really don't think that is their view.

This situation concerning a faculty member seems to have ignited a fire to get action on these matters. We need to have a faculty handbook available. We need an approved grievance policy. We need to have access to a personnel policy manual. Even if the documents are in draft form, we need them now. It cannot be good for the university to be lacking easy access to such basic documents.

Mike Broadway