AU AAUP

The Auburn University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors

_____________________________________________________________________________

September 23, 2004

Mr. Jack Allen

Associate Executive Director, Commission on Colleges

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

1866 Southern Lane

Decatur, Georgia 30033

> jallen@sacscoc.org

Letter from AU AAUP to SACS regarding Auburn University

Dear Mr. Allen:

The Auburn University chapter of the American Association of University Professors wants its institution to be returned to full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Since AU was placed on probation in December 2003, a number of positive steps have been taken toward that goal, including Interim President Ed Richardson's decision to terminate the university's lawsuit against the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities, the adoption of a conflict of interest policy by the AU Board of Trustees and the placing of five new and diverse trustees on the Board.

The chapter is even more eager, however, that the imprimatur of accreditation be earned not through expedient and cosmetic actions and statements by administrators and trustees, but through total compliance, in letter and spirit, with the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation criteria. To that end, the AU chapter of AAUP urges SACS to examine carefully the clear indications that many of the issues that placed AU on probation may, in fact, have worsened over the past year.

Below is a list of some of these areas of deep concern which may violate Section 1.4 of the Criteria for Accreditation.

Item 1: Dr. Richardson's appointment to Interim President.

The preemptory elevation of a sitting trustee to interim president, when actions by this board of trustees were the sole reason why AU was placed on probation, is deeply disturbing. The fact that no faculty input was involved and that faculty concerns were, in fact, ignored places this act on a clear continuum with the board's elevation of President William Walker; if Richardson stays the three years he now says he may, AU will have been under interim control for seven full years.

Even more disturbing is the fact that Dr. Richardson has over the past 10 years acted in concert with the board's most powerful trustees, particularly Robert Lowder. It should also be noted that Richardson's daughter is a vice president in Colonial Bank of which Lowder is CEO. Consider also his selection in 1997 to co-chair with former president William Walker the Role Commission, set up to evaluate and abolish academic programs. This commission's work is an extraordinary example of the board's micromanagement and political retaliation against academic

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programs, clearly overstepping SACS-sanctioned bounds. The two men hand-picked to run this commission were also later handpicked to run the university -- without virtue of any faculty input, let alone a national search or any attempt to meet minimum E.E.O.C. requirements.

Item 2: There presently exists a chilling atmosphere on campus as a result of firings, demotions, the elimination of positions and the placing of individuals who go along with the Board's agenda into high office, e.g., the naming of John Mouton as Special Assistant to the President. Dr. Richardson seems to be running Auburn University like a business (using firings, threats and intimidations to keep folks in line) rather than as an academic institution. For instance, faculty cannot write columns for the AU Report that are critical of the administration. Dr. Muse allowed such columns to run in the AU Report; Dr. Richardson does not.

Item 3: Personnel decisions, reflecting an attempt to regain control for Lowder and his allies of the Auburn Alumni Association.

One of the greatest strides toward ensuring the Board of Trustees is not dominated by a minority was the enactment into law of a procedure by which alumni are included on a nominating panel for new trustees. This means that if trustees can control the Alumni Association, they can again control the constitution of the board; this is critical, and was demonstrated amply in fall 2000, when the election of Alumni Board members was so tampered with that the matter was remanded to the court.

Dr. Richardson's termination of Betty DeMent, Vice President for Alumni Affairs for nine years is notable. Ms. DeMent's opposition to Lowder is well-known; under her supervision, the award-winning Auburn Magazine was allowed to print letters critical of Lowder, and Lowder lost the account for the Alumni Association. In addition, Dr. Richardson recently moved the offices of Auburn Magazine into Samford Hall, the central administration building, and fired a number of people who worked for the magazine (even firing public relations editor Robert Lowry, the husband of one of the editors, who believes he was suspected of leaking information to local columnist Paul Davis). Dr. Richardson told a meeting of AAUP last spring that if the Alumni Association continued to criticize the administration and Board (although he characterized these actions as "not working for the betterment of Auburn University") he would sever all official university ties to it; in many meetings across the state, he has repeated this threat, including one memorable statement in which he said he would "drop the hammer" on the association if it continues to oppose some trustees. The effect has been a complete chilling of all statements or actions from the Association and, quite clearly, seems intended to influence the critical Alumni Association Board election of officers at the end of September 2004.

Item 4: Personnel decisions reflecting Board bias toward "loyal" or "disloyal" employees.

Dr. Richardson has told the Senate and AAUP that the joke going around campus is that a trip to his office is sure termination. For a number of people who have been fired during their lunch hour (Bob Lowry), had their e-mail privileges yanked before they could return to their offices (Betty DeMent) and been told they cannot pack up their things in their office unless escorted (E.E.O.C. officer, Janet Saunders), it is no joke. In most cases, a clear connection between their public attitude toward the Board and its "sacred cows" and their termination can be drawn, though Dr. Richardson publicly calls their dismissals a result of cost-cutting or removing "deadwood."

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Consider the demotion of former Assistant Vice President Christine Curtis, who for two years has been publicly campaigning to require the Athletic Department to pay for post-football game cleanups of the campus. (That cost is borne by the Academic General Fund). At the same time, the Board custom of rewarding particularly vocal loyal employees continues. Though Walker was

forced to resign, he spent the last ten months earning his presidential salary -- more than $1,000 a day -- although he had no assignment until this semester. Athletic Director David Housel, long a Lowder loyalist, was also forced to step down, but he continues to draw his equally substantial salary and maintain his title -- though Richardson appointed Hal Baird to do Housel's job while a search begins. John Mouton, past Senate chair and a vocal advocate and friend of the Board and particularly Board President Earlon McWhorter, has been elevated to Special Assistant to the President. Former College of Liberal Arts Dean John Heilman remains as Richardson's special assistant after being named to that post by Walker; the two joined to merge the journalism department (with the communication department) over the recommendation a faculty program review committee and after Heilman told the journalism faculty that he was forced to action because "they (the Board) don't like you."

Most recently and blatantly, Dr. Richardson hired Jon Waggoner, a member of trustee and Lowder attorney Jack Miller's law firm, in a created three-year position of Special Legal Counsel. Dr. Richardson told the General Faculty meeting on Sept. 14 that he hired Waggoner because he was a nice man with small children who needed a job in Auburn. It's difficult to believe that there was no Board involvement in this decision, or that AU could not have found another attorney in the U.S. A year ago, Mr. Waggoner produced a report, apparently pro bono, to the Board about the fact that trustees James Samford and Lowell Barron attempted to have grades changed at student request. AAUP member and current Senate Chair-Elect Conner Bailey reported to the AAUP listserv that the report "smeared" Muse; at the next Board meeting, McWhorter said, without naming Bailey, that he wanted an investigation of "the faculty member" who used the report to criticize the Board. It would be well for SACS to see this report, the tone of which indicates how completely Waggoner endeavored to please the Board.

Other troubling personnel decisions have included the dismissal of Janet Saunders, the E.E.O.C. officer, and placing that office under the Department of Human Resources -- behavior consistent with actions of a Board that, until last winter, has never had more than one woman at the table and, much of the time, none. Also, the minuscule number of women in senior administrative positions and on the faculty reflects poorly on AU's commitment to diversity and is certainly not in line with the recommendations of the SACS team who visited in February (though that report was not released to faculty, in spite of repeated requests, until Sept. 21). All of the above reflects our deep concern that, despite the rhetoric and professions of independence, Dr. Richardson is acting not independently of the Board but, in fact, as the Board; that his appointment simply removed the "middle man" standing between Board desires and actions. It also served to avoid the inconvenience of a search for a leader whose record and qualifications would be openly scrutinized and whose appointment would meet the minimal E.E.O.C. standards applied to the hiring of a new faculty member. And it leads us to the deeper concern that, if these are the actions of an interim President and Board while Auburn remains on probation with SACS, much worse will follow if SACS is no longer their concern.

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While the chapter favors AU's removal from probation, we are deeply concerned. We hope that SACS will thoroughly investigate these issues, rather than take Dr. Richardson's word that he is "solely in charge of Auburn University," and that Auburn University will move forward with a national search in which faculty are fully involved in finding a permanent president as soon as possible. It is imperative that SACS continue to monitor the situation at AU closely, and require on-going progress reports. Please let us know if we can provide any further information.

(Signatures of the Executive Committee, signing for the local chapter who authorized this letter by vote at a September 21 meeting, follow on attached page. President-Elect Virginia O'Leary is signing for President Christa Slaton, who was ill.)