Seventeen tenured and tenure-track faculty lost their jobs because of the “Pathways” Plan. Some of those released faculty members should get an opportunity to teach at Loyola again, according to the University Rank and Tenure Committee.
The URTC has heard the appeals of five fired tenure faculty, according to Maria Calzada, professor of mathematics and URTC chairwoman.
According to the faculty handbook, the URTC “serves as an appeals body primarily in cases of denial of rank and/or tenure.” This includes hearing appeals for termination due to program discontinuance.
“We have heard several cases and forwarded our recommendations to Father Wildes, who will consider them. We are in the process of scheduling and hearing several other appeals, and recommendations to Father Wildes will follow,” Calzada said of the appeals. She was unable to comment on the particulars of the cases that have been heard or will be heard.
Mary Blue, a former professor of mass communication, was recommended for reinstatement by the URTC because her termination violated the faculty handbook, the committee determined.
The recommendation was printed in a letter to the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., university president, dated March 8.
Wildes commented on the committee’s recommendation in an e-mail to The Maroon. “URTC makes recommendations to the president and then the president makes a final decision. Given that the process is still underway, I am taking everything under advisement,” Wildes said.
The URTC based their decision on section 9.E. of the faculty handbook, “Procedures for Termination Because of Discontinuances.” The university, the handbook reads, must follow the process for discontinuance, make every effort to place or retrain the individual in a suitable position within the university and offer a “severance salary equitably adjusted to the faculty member’s length of past and potential service.”
The committee’s vote on each of these matters was unanimous that on each point administrators wrongly terminated Blue, according to the March 8 letter.
The correct process was not followed because the criteria for dismissal were not recognized by the University Senate or applied by the Standing Council for Academic Planning as required by the faculty handbook, the committee said.
The committee also decided that “every effort to place the faculty member concerned in another suitable position” was not made. Blue had more than 25 years of teaching experience and was qualified “to teach many courses for which the School of Mass Communication is currently employing adjunct faculty,” according to the URTC letter to Wildes.
The committee also found the one year’s salary severance pay did not meet the requirement to adjust severance for “either past or potential service” for Blue’s years of service at the university.
Blue, who is now teaching at Tulane as adjunct faculty, commented on the URTC’s recommendation in an e-mail to The Maroon. On whether or not she would return to Loyola if offered a position, Blue said “I want what I deserve, and that’s choice.
“I was expecting to get my Loyola rocking chair for 25 years of service to the university. Instead I was locked out of the facilities that I had taken excellent care of all these years and was told to vacate my office by 4:45 p.m. on August 18, 2006, or else,” Blue said.
According to Blue, William Hammel, a former professor of mass communication; Nancy Dupont, former professor of mass communication; Ken Messa, professor of computer science and Margie Dermody, professor of education, also received recommendations for reinstatement the same day the URTC issued her recommendation.
Despite campus rumblings of pending lawsuits, Blue said legal ramifications stemming from the URTC’s recommendation would depend “entirely on the actions of the president and the board.”
Tara Templeton can be reached at [email protected].
