Letters: Louisiana’s downward evolution in education

In your story about LSU being censured by the national Association of University Professors,” June 17, the UL system president is dismissive of the censure of Louisiana universities by the American Association of University Professors. With his less-than-modest credentials in higher education, one would have at least expected some humility in brushing off what has been for a century the defining national organization of university faculty.

The AAUP has 48,000 faculty members, from big and small universities, public and private, with many from the top ranks. Its enunciation of principles and its defense of academic freedom, going back to 1915, have come to define higher education, not just in the United States but in many other nations. Even high courts have cited them in judicial decisions.

The unanimous vote for censure by such a group, along with the earlier statement by its general secretary: “Louisiana is only one of 50 states and not one of the biggest, but we’re getting far more work from the state of Louisiana than we ought to be getting. ... It’s approaching the ridiculous,” should lead to soul-searching, not just taking comfort in that accreditation agencies have not moved against us. Not yet. Continued abuse of academic freedom, faculty governance and tenure, defining them as we please here in Louisiana, will not fool these agencies as well.

Censure by the AAUP is not to be treated lightly. It damages our ability to attract or retain good faculty and students. Without them, all the pablum that the state will retain its best students and prosper in a knowledge economy are just empty words.

The continued regressive policies and remarks of “leaders” is astonishing and discouraging. Former state Rep. Vic Stelly, of the plan that was voted in by the people but overthrown in part by this governor and the Legislature, recently resigned from the Board of Regents, speaking out against what is happening to education and our state.

Our governor and legislators wrap themselves in false populist cloaks, that of parents and the poor as they savage public schools and teachers, or of religion as they run down science and expertise. When a high school kid lined up over 40 Nobel Prize winners on the issue of the scientific theory of evolution, they dismiss that to follow the Family Forum or Discovery Institute, as if these speak for science. But all this is but a cloak to hide the real agenda of diverting tax monies into private hands under vouchers and tax subsidies.

They show neither intelligence nor good design in their own policies or ideas for the state. Instead, there is a steady downward evolution of our schools, universities and the state.

A.R.P. RAU

professor

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by wrobison - 23/06/2012

I am responding to Professor Rau’s June 20 attack on UL System President Randy Moffett in my own behalf, not as a representative of Southeastern Louisiana University, where I work, nor from any animus to LSU, where I am a three-time graduate. However, I know Moffett and others involved in the case that led to AAUP censure of Southeastern, and I have read the AAUP report and the university’s response. Rau gratuitously insults Moffett’s ‘less-than-modest credentials.’ Actually, at Southeastern Moffett led dramatic improvements in the College of Education as Dean and skillfully handled day-to- day administration under Sally Clausen as Provost. As President he regularly consulted the Faculty Senate, upheld academic freedom, supplemented state-funded pay raises, increased budgets for research, and implemented admission standards that enhanced academic quality. After Katrina he reopened the school quickly and took in over 2000 displaced students from New Orleans with no guarantee that Southeastern would receive a penny for doing so. Many of us consider him a hero for that. As UL System President, Moffett has fought budget cuts, most recently just a week ago, though as LSU President John Lombardi’s fate shows, that is risky And he is absolutely right to upbraid the AAUP, which ignored a mountain of evidence contrary to its apparently foregone conclusion to censure Southeastern. Southeastern terminated the French baccalaureate program and associated faculty because the Board of Regents (not the UL Board) made clear that it planned to do so due to the program’s low completer status (2 graduates per year). The dismissed faculty members were my longtime colleagues and friends, and I hate what happened to them, but I have yet to hear a plausible alternative. In the remarks which Rau denounces, Moffett defended Southeastern and justifiably so. Current President John Crain has worked tirelessly to protect faculty, students, and programs from devastating budget cuts and has kept faculty informed to a degree that my colleagues at other institutions find astounding. The idea that there is a ‘climate of fear’ at Southeastern is laughable. But Moffett said nothing in defense of LSU’s firing of Ivor van Heerden for criticizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which Rau and the AAUP rightly condemned in 2009. LSU deserves censure for that, but the AAUP is not always right, and in any case Moffett is correct that its opinion has no legal weight in Louisiana. Rau is right to deplore state government hostility to science and to education in general, but Moffett has nothing to do with any of that. At a time when higher education and public schools are routinely a target, it is important for faculty to distinguish between friends and enemies. Randy Moffett is a friend.

2) Comment by Old Man Kensey - 21/06/2012

The AAUP should set up a board to censure Rouge Scholars. Especially when they are acting like the village idiot.

3) Comment by hemogoblin - 21/06/2012

You can't take AAUP seriously. Their "investigations" amount to taking the word of the aggrieved professor. The rest of the letter I agree with.

4) Comment by spqr - 21/06/2012

Great letter.

5) Comment by DMJ - 21/06/2012

Trying our hardest to win the race to the bottom. Mississippi, here we come!!

6) Comment by lovemykids - 21/06/2012

Thanks to Jindal and his accessories for the need to have this letter.

7) Comment by Bighug - 21/06/2012

Well said. Unfortunately, Louisiana is populated by a majority of voters who are anti-science and pro-superstition. Politicians will play to the one's who have the most votes at the expense of good education. We might as well be living in Haiti.

8) Comment by teacherguy - 20/06/2012

Higher ed professors and public school teachers see themselves as crew members in the same Titanic boat of educational ruin...and the ship is going down, there will be life boats with survivors that we will help guide to safety...but there will be an endless mass of casualties that could have been avoided if it weren't for a bull-headed captain and passengers seeking to save only themselves! Public education represents EVERY opportunity to EVERY passenger...instead of sending students/passengers out in life boats half empty (charters, etc.)...should we pool all of our resources together...there are enough deck chairs, tables, rope, life boats, and other resources that if used wisely could save the entire population of education...ouch, that hurt...and is a signal I should just go to bed tonight! LOL

9) Comment by gvm - 20/06/2012

"...seem to be plagued..."

10) Comment by gvm - 20/06/2012

Unfortunately, I don't think this will have much of an impact on our so-called leaders. They have initiated a decidedly partisan (and undeniably reckless) scheme designed, ultimately, to cripple public education. This they do while simultaneously declaring that they're trying to attract businesses to the state. Louisiana politics these days seemed to be plagued with an incongruous mixture of policies that are at odds with good governance.