Reports obtained by the Wheel have found that some of the statements in this article are allegations. However, given the nature of the subject, we recognize this opinion as a relevant and prominent one and find it still worthy of print.
Recent revelations force Emory cuts back onto the agenda. Far from acting ethically or in the spirit of dialogue, the Emory administration fraudulently and secretly rigged the document that governs lecture-track faculty employment. They did so in order to make the cuts unappealable and invincible to the faculty process.
A document titled “Appointment and Review of Lecture-Track Faculty” (ARLTF) governs changes in lecture-track employment, and thus the cuts and thus also the appeal of the cuts. The Governance Committee (GovCom) recently rejected the affected faculty’s appeal, citing the following clause, which states an appeal of a contract termination can only continue “if the College plans to continue supporting the position.”
GovCom states the policy is clear: because the College doesn’t plan to support the positions, the firings can’t be appealed.
But this clause, also initially cited to justify the cuts, was never shown to faculty or voted on. The Lecture-Track Faculty (LTF) committee votes on all changes in the ARLTF. But Hiram Maxim, chair of the LTF committee, says, “We did not make any revisions to 6a and I was not aware that any changes had been made.”
How curious! How did it get added? It does not appear in previous versions of the document, but showed up sometime in September. The PDF’s document history shows it was modified by “slee03” on Aug. 12, 2012. “Slee03” is Susan Lee, executive assistant to College Dean Robin Forman.
I believe that the administration secretly doctored the ARLTF in order to make it impossible for faculty to appeal their firings. They did so before the cuts were announced, no doubt in anticipation of vigorous appeals. Everything the administration has said to try to justify these cuts in terms of process is, for lack of a better phrase, total crap. Bald-faced lies.
In making the change, the administration seems to have worked in concert, unofficially and in secret, with a few faculty members on the LTF committee, including Michael Elliott, senior associate dean of faculty. Elliott claims the clause is “a change of clarification rather than change of substance,” and thus did not need to be voted on.
This is simply false. The clause is absolutely decisive. The additional clause is what GovCom cited in order to deny the appeal. It is what the administration cited to justify the cuts, and what the Lecture-Track Faculty Promotion Committee (LTFPC) cited to deny the initial appeal of termination of contracts. How, then, could it merely be a change in phrasing?
It’s obvious why the administration didn’t want the doctored clause to be voted on. Functionally, the clause bans the appeal of employment decisions. An appeal presumes disagreement between the two parties (here the administration and the department).
But the doctored policy only allows an appeal process if both parties agree, i.e. if the administration wants to keep the position. Thus, under this doctored policy there can be no appeal of administration employment decisions.
This administration believes they can lie to you, illegally fire faculty and secretly change governance policy to make it all okay. It is no exaggeration to call this sort of power dictatorial; to have unappealable authority is to be a dictator by definition. This goes beyond the cuts and speaks to what Emory is. Is it merely a sandbox for the administration? They seem to certainly think so.
Even if you support the cuts, how could you have confidence in this administration? How can you have confidence in those that lie through their teeth, that speak of ethics and process but secretly undermine both?
Emory deserves better. After SAT fraud, a $1.5 million settlement of Medicare fraud and now what appears to be employment contract fraud, Emory deserves integrity. This administration has none. Perhaps their employment contracts should be terminated.
David Mullins is a College senior from Austin, Texas.
Photo courtesy of NatShots, Flickr
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