AAUP Says Northern Iowa Used Dishonesty and Duress to Shed Professors - Peter Schmidt, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The American Association of University Professors has accused the University of Northern Iowa of unduly pressuring professors to resign as part of a controversial cost-cutting effort. In a report issued last month, an AAUP investigative committee argues that the university's administration used a dishonest academic-program-review process, with little faculty involvement, to put professors' jobs on the chopping block last year. As part of the process, the report says, the administration defined academic program areas in ways that served no academic purpose, and instead appeared intended to provide an excuse to declare that the programs had low enrollments and should be eliminated. The review resulted in plans to discontinue nearly a fifth of Northern Iowa's academic programs, leaving more than 50 faculty positions threatened, the report says. http://chronicle.com/article/AAUP-Says-Northern-Iowa-Used/136401/