To the editor:

The recent Kansas Board of Regents decision to suspend tenure protections for the time being represents one more demoralizing blow to faculty at the University of Kansas. For the past year the faculty have labored tirelessly to continue educating their students, conducting innovative research, and serving the public good in Kansas and beyond. Beyond the sense of insecurity this policy brings at a time of local, national and international crisis, the policy is unnecessary. The University Senate Rules and Regulations (USRR) and the Faculty Senate Rules and Regulation (FSRR), the basis for shared governance at KU, both allow for the dismissal of tenured faculty in the case of program termination and cases of financial exigency.

Most members of the campus community have long expected a declaration of financial exigency given the lost revenue and looming budget cuts. Yet, such a declaration has not been made. This new policy effectively bypasses the existing framework for declaring financial exigency. Although the new policy requires Regents universities to develop a process for implementation, there are no guarantees that the new framework would be as open and transparent as the existing requirements for declaring financial exigency. If the fiscal crisis facing the university is as dire as it seems, I urge Chancellor Douglas Girod and Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer to declare a financial exigency and use the processes already defined in the USRR and FSRR to move toward program elimination and dismissal of tenured faculty. KU simply has no need for the new policy.

Robert Schwaller,

Lawrence