PLU placed on ‘censure’ list after investigation into faculty member’s dismissal
The American Association of University Professors voted last month to place Pacific Lutheran University on its censure list after an investigation found the university “acted in bad faith” when dismissing a senior music lecturer in 2018.
PLU is now the 58th university on the list, which shows the universities AAUP finds to have “unsatisfactory” conditions for academic freedom and tenure, as outlined in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
“This list is published for the purpose of informing Association members, the profession at large, and the public that unsatisfactory conditions of academic freedom and tenure have been found to prevail at these institutions,” according to the AAUP’s website.
Kirsten Christensen, professor of German at PLU and a support for former senior lecturer Jane Harty during her dismissal, told The News Tribune in February being on the list could impact faculty recruitment.
“It could impact PLU’s ability to recruit faculty because even though it’s about the case of a single faculty member, it speaks to a climate of an institute,” Christensen said. “... I don’t know if it would keep students from coming, but I imagine students care about how their faculty is treated.”
Reached this week, PLU declined to discuss additional details of the AAUP report because it is a “personnel matter.”
“Dr. Harty’s dismissal from the university followed our formal faculty governance process, and many of the assertions and opinions expressed in the AAUP report are factually incorrect,” PLU spokesperson Zach Powers said in an email.
The decision to censure PLU comes after AAUP released a report in January of an investigation into the case of Harty, who worked for the university for 40 years. In 2018, the university discovered a student tried to pay Harty for an independent piano lesson, which PLU administration said was against policy, despite Harty returning the money, according to the report. Harty was later granted a faculty dismissal hearing, which the report called a “sham exercise.”
Reached this week, Harty told The News Tribune she expected the censure and that the administration was “warned in advance.”
The AAUP Council, made up of about 40 professors and faculty members across the country, voted to add PLU to the censure list last month, according to a June 22 update.
A statement from the Council reiterated the report’s findings and suggested that Harty’s longtime advocacy for faculty rights, such as an effort to unionize, contributed to the dismissal.
“With respect to academic freedom, the report found that the relatively minor nature of the misconduct in which the faculty member was alleged to have engaged and the summary nature of the administrative action taken against her supported the inference that the real reasons for her dismissal may have stemmed from the administration’s long-standing displeasure with her advocacy for the rights of faculty members on contingent appointments,” according to the statement.
AAUP is a nonprofit organization of professors and academics founded in 1915 with chapters at more than 500 accredited colleges and universities across the country. Its mission is to advance academic freedom and define the values and standards for higher education.
AAUP makes its censure decisions around springtime of every year. While the Council votes to put universities on the list, they also can be taken off the list. This year, in addition to voting PLU on the censure list, AAUP approved removing Clarkson College in Omaha from the list after the university adopted AAUP-proposed policy language.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
