Shared Crisis - Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

Citing a recent wave of unilateral moves to eliminate academic programs by university administrators claiming financial crisis, the American Association of University Professors has released new guidelines designed to tighten the definition of financial exigency and increase faculty participation in deciding whether to close programs. The new recommendations outline a strict protocol for faculty participation in declarations of financial exigency and department closure discussions. Peer-elected faculty members should be involved alongside administrators at all levels of the discussion, with access to least five years' worth of the institutions’ audited financial statements; current and following-year budgets; and detailed cash-flow estimates for future years, as well as program, department and administrative-level budgets. Program cuts – and the tenure-track job losses that usually accompany them – should also be a last resort, following attempts to cure budget ills by furloughs and other means, including cuts to extracurricular expenditures. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/15/aaup-calls-faculty-participation-financial-exigency-declarations