© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

AAUP gets involved in case of tenured professors laid off at Florida Memorial University

As of May, Florida Memorial University laid off 10 faculty members, citing financial challenges. Now three of the professors are turning to the AAUP for help.
Carl Juste / Miami Herald
As of May, Florida Memorial University laid off 10 faculty members, citing financial challenges. Now three of the professors are turning to the AAUP for help.

The American Association of University Professors is getting involved in the case of three tenured professors who were laid off from Florida Memorial University. An AAUP staffer penned a letter to the school this week asking administrators to reverse the terminations.

Last month, Florida Memorial laid off 10 professors, comprising 13% of its faculty workforce, citing financial pressures and the need to discontinue programs with low student participation. For years, the historically Black university in Miami Gardens has struggled with low enrollment.

As the pandemic continues, you can rely on WLRN to keep you current on local news and information. Your support is what keeps WLRN strong. Please become a member today. Donate now. Thank you.

Four of the professors have alleged the school discriminated against them because of their age, race or both. Three of them have also reached out to the AAUP for assistance: economics professor Abbass Entessari, chemistry and environmental science professor William Hopper, and music professor Richard Yaklich.

They argue the school failed to follow its own policies in cutting tenured positions, which they say guarantees them a year’s notice before being laid off.

In a letter sent to President Jaffus Hardrick and other school administrators on May 31, AAUP Senior Program Officer Michael DeCesare said sidestepping university policy on tenured positions undermines faculty trust and, ultimately, academic freedom.

"Tenure doesn't exist without the academic due process that protects it," DeCesare told WLRN. "If a tenured position can simply be eliminated without due process, tenure exists in name only at the institution. At least from the AAUP's perspective."

DeCesare said the professors deserve a meaningful process for appealing the decision — and to get new jobs at the university.

”[W]e urge that the Florida Memorial administration withdraw its notices of termination of the three faculty members’ tenured appointments and to make every effort to find suitable alternative faculty positions for Professors Entessari, Hopper, and Yaklich,” DeCesare's letter reads in part.

As of June 3, DeCesare said he had not received a response from the school.

Asked for comment about the AAUP’s letter, a university spokesperson directed WLRN to previous statements.

Florida Memorial maintains that the decision to terminate the 10 professors and eight other positions was “data-driven” and meant to realign resources to better support students.

“I will never do anything where we are violating the protected statuses of anyone. We could no longer continue to have programs open where we have no students in those programs,” Hardrick told WLRN in April. “And so we are aligning many of our academic programs with market needs and demands.”

Entessari, Hopper, Yaklich and Mathematics professor Telahun Desalegne have also filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging Florida Memorial discriminated against them. An attorney for the professors has said if the university doesn’t address their complaints, they plan to sue.

Kate Payne is WLRN's Education Reporter. Reach her at kpayne@wlrnnews.org
More On This Topic