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Task forces to study two colleges
Faculty and administration representatives agreed Thursday to focus studies on two colleges at SCSU.
The decision follows an agreement by faculty association members Tuesday to work with administrators to iron out problems with the lack of due process, which they said are apparent in SCSU.
Two task forces are to be set up, one each to look into the college of social sciences and the college of education.
Lisa Foss, SCSU director of marketing and communications, said the decision was made at a meet-and-confer meeting between the administration and faculty association members Thursday. Also at the meeting were two representatives from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
"(The decision was made) in line with part of the recommendations set forth by the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) report," she said.
Foss said that the task forces would also have sub-groups. However, details of these would be decided later.
"The president is happy that (the administration and the faculty) had managed to reach an agreement on at least part of (what they had talked about)," Foss said.
Faculty association members met Tuesday during an emergency meeting. Some members of the faculty were prepared to bring a vote of no confidence against the administration for what they perceive as a lack of due process considering the termination of faculty.
This move never made it to the floor, association president-elect Andrew Larkin said. The faculty instead agreed to work with the administration, as was discussed earlier in the day between SCSU President Roy Saigo and FA president Theresia Fisher.
Faculty members were especially up in arms over the termination of two professors in the history department who Larkin called "highly qualified." The professors were said to have had their positions terminated because of alleged academic fraud.
While the faculty members are not supporting academic fraud, they feel that the two faculty members who were terminated were not given due process. Now they are fighting to reinstate the two history professors pending investigations into the alleged academic fraud, which is the due process these faculty are looking for.
But it is not just the faculty members who are ready to defend their peers. Students will be protesting today over the firing of these professors.
Leslie Andres can be reached at: [email protected]
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