Purdue Tenured Math Prof salary set at $0 to force him out?

[Hibush]

This seems at least somewhat comparable to the issue of requiring elderly drivers to take annual licensing re-exams  after a certain age, to include not only eye tests but also some sort of evals designed to ensure that they remain competent to be on the road?  In the case of tenured academics, when and how might such reevals occur?

Thanks to r/professors, I learned that Purdue's procedure for dealing with this situation is well codified:

https://www.purdue.edu/policies/human-resources/b-48.html

There is a standing committee that is charged with doing the review, but it appears that administration has failed to follow the procedure.

[mleok]

This was a former colleague of mine, the professor at Princeton who is advocating for him is Charlie Fefferman, who is a Fields Medal and a highly distinguished mathematician. This action by the department head is an unacceptable violation of the principle of shared governance. There is a well-defined procedure for terminating a tenured faculty member at Purdue, and it involves a review by the Faculty Committee on Censure and Dismissal,

https://www.purdue.edu/senate/committees/standing-committees/facultyAffairs/censureDismissalProcedures.php

which a standing committee of the University Senate. 80% of the full professors in the department have signed onto a letter protesting the manner in which the issue has been handled.

[research_prof]

This was a former colleague of mine, the professor at Princeton who is advocating for him is Charlie Fefferman, who is a Fields Medal and a highly distinguished mathematician. This action by the department head is an unacceptable violation of the principle of shared governance. There is a well-defined procedure for terminating a tenured faculty member at Purdue, and it involves a review by the Faculty Committee on Censure and Dismissal,

https://www.purdue.edu/senate/committees/standing-committees/facultyAffairs/censureDismissalProcedures.php

which a standing committee of the University Senate. 80% of the full professors in the department have signed onto a letter protesting the manner in which the issue has been handled.

You really believe there is shared governance at universities today? LOL....

[Ruralguy]

There is shared governance, to varying extents, when the faculty *want* to share in it. If they are passive, then there won't be shared governance.
Shared governance takes work, and a lot of faculty would rather spend their time on teaching, scholarship and other service that isn't really shared governance.

[Hibush]

There is shared governance, to varying extents, when the faculty *want* to share in it. If they are passive, then there won't be shared governance.
Shared governance takes work, and a lot of faculty would rather spend their time on teaching, scholarship and other service that isn't really shared governance.

Purdue recently did a restructuring plan for shared governance because the Senate devolved into fights among faculty. It does not appear that Mitch Daniels took advantage of the disorder to establish executive fiat. The main complaint in the news is that the search for his successor was not public, but that was never going to happen.

[mleok]

This was a former colleague of mine, the professor at Princeton who is advocating for him is Charlie Fefferman, who is a Fields Medal and a highly distinguished mathematician. This action by the department head is an unacceptable violation of the principle of shared governance. There is a well-defined procedure for terminating a tenured faculty member at Purdue, and it involves a review by the Faculty Committee on Censure and Dismissal,

https://www.purdue.edu/senate/committees/standing-committees/facultyAffairs/censureDismissalProcedures.php

which a standing committee of the University Senate. 80% of the full professors in the department have signed onto a letter protesting the manner in which the issue has been handled.

You really believe there is shared governance at universities today? LOL....

Maybe not at your university, but at the University of California system, where I teach, it is still very much a real thing.

[jimbogumbo]

There is shared governance, to varying extents, when the faculty *want* to share in it. If they are passive, then there won't be shared governance.
Shared governance takes work, and a lot of faculty would rather spend their time on teaching, scholarship and other service that isn't really shared governance.

Purdue recently did a restructuring plan for shared governance because the Senate devolved into fights among faculty. It does not appear that Mitch Daniels took advantage of the disorder to establish executive fiat. The main complaint in the news is that the search for his successor was not public, but that was never going to happen.

Respectfully disagree. As someone who saw it all from within the system, I'd characterize it as the culmination of the BoT's and Mitch Daniels's long term efforts to subvert shared governance.

[Hibush]

It does not appear that Mitch Daniels took advantage of the disorder to establish executive fiat. The main complaint in the news is that the search for his successor was not public, but that was never going to happen.

Respectfully disagree. As someone who saw it all from within the system, I'd characterize it as the culmination of the BoT's and Mitch Daniels's long term efforts to subvert shared governance.

Do tell! Inside knowledge beats reading the outside tea leaves.

[mleok]

There is shared governance, to varying extents, when the faculty *want* to share in it. If they are passive, then there won't be shared governance.
Shared governance takes work, and a lot of faculty would rather spend their time on teaching, scholarship and other service that isn't really shared governance.

Purdue recently did a restructuring plan for shared governance because the Senate devolved into fights among faculty. It does not appear that Mitch Daniels took advantage of the disorder to establish executive fiat. The main complaint in the news is that the search for his successor was not public, but that was never going to happen.

Respectfully disagree. As someone who saw it all from within the system, I'd characterize it as the culmination of the BoT's and Mitch Daniels's long term efforts to subvert shared governance.

The manner in which the case involving racist remarks by the PU Northwest chancellor during commencement was handled strongly suggests that the BOT and Mitch Daniels does not give two hoots about shared governance.

[ciao_yall]

There is shared governance, to varying extents, when the faculty *want* to share in it. If they are passive, then there won't be shared governance.
Shared governance takes work, and a lot of faculty would rather spend their time on teaching, scholarship and other service that isn't really shared governance.

Purdue recently did a restructuring plan for shared governance because the Senate devolved into fights among faculty. It does not appear that Mitch Daniels took advantage of the disorder to establish executive fiat. The main complaint in the news is that the search for his successor was not public, but that was never going to happen.

Respectfully disagree. As someone who saw it all from within the system, I'd characterize it as the culmination of the BoT's and Mitch Daniels's long term efforts to subvert shared governance.

The manner in which the case involving racist remarks by the PU Northwest chancellor during commencement was handled strongly suggests that the BOT and Mitch Daniels does not give two hoots about shared governance.

In my experience, thought not at PU, fights within the Shared Governance structure slow things down so much that Boards/Chancellors throw up their hands, manage by executive fiat just to get things done, and don't get enough meaningful pushback besides Senate resolutions howling "You should have consulted usssssssss!"

[Ruralguy]

Faculty need good representatives to the administration and BoT to help explain where the faculty is at. Also faculty need to elect
people who will be intent on at least trying to get certain things done.

One thing that slows down faculty quite a bit is folks who go rogue, don't try to get buy in, and then , yes, you do get faculty complaining they weren't consulted. Better to consult and slow down, then don't consult and get slowed down anyway.

[mleok]

Further coverage of this issue in Purdue's campus newspaper,

https://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_292fefc0-5c74-53fc-b5c9-63b3fde6f6af.html

[marshwiggle]

Further coverage of this issue in Purdue's campus newspaper,

https://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_292fefc0-5c74-53fc-b5c9-63b3fde6f6af.html

One interesting incident:

The situation snowballed from there. Students complained Donnelly left five minutes prior to the start of a lecture and failed to come back to teach the remainder of it on Feb. 1, 2021, a week after classes had begun.

And on the Feb. 1 walking-out incident that led to Swanson removing Donnelly as a MA 262 instructor, Lipshitz said there's more to the story.

Lipshitz claims that it had snowed heavily the night before the Feb. 1 class. When Donnelly woke up to a snow-covered car, he spent "several hours" shoveling snow to free his car from his driveway.

Exhausted, Donnelly forgot he had to teach a second class after his first lecture earlier that day and returned home to rest, Lipshitz claimed. On his way home, Donnelly realized his error, but said he didn't have access to his email at home to contact his students.