Seeking to Lay Off Tenured Professors, Catholic U. Provost Blasts Critics for ‘Spreading Half-Truths and Fear’ - Jack Stripling, Chronicle of Higher Ed

In a fiery treatise on Monday, the provost of Catholic University of America rejected what he described as a faculty committee’s attempt to "mutilate" and "neuter" a layoff plan that some professors describe as a threat to the institution of tenure. He also condemned the plan’s toughest critics, whom he accused of "spreading half-truths and fear" instead of collaborating on a cost-cutting proposal. The provost says that layoffs or buyouts are needed to close a $3.5-million budget deficit that came about in part from enrollment declines. Andrew V. Abela, the provost, proposed in March that the university eliminate the positions of 35 full-time professors, including tenured faculty members. That would be about 9 percent of the faculty. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Seeking-to-Lay-Off-Tenured/243366