Bethune-Cookman Report Now Online

An Association investigating committee report on Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, now published on the AAUP’s Web site, deals with the 2009 dismissal of four professors and the termination of the services of three additional faculty members. The stated reasons for these actions ranged from charges of sexual harassment of students to claims of insufficient academic credentials to the purported need to reduce the size of the faculty for financial reasons. The report concluded that, in each case, the professors were denied virtually all AAUP-supported protections of academic due process. It further concluded that the administration’s reliance in the dismissals on outside investigators, consultants, and attorneys to deal with matters for which the faculty should have responsibility speaks poorly about the climate of shared governance at the institution.