The Carbondale 104

"This is a very grim and unfortunate thing that no one on this campus wanted," said Southern Illinois University President David R. Derge. It is just about the only statement that has been made recently on the Carbondale, Ill., campus with which everyone can agree. The event that Derge referred to: as a result of a budget cut, the university fired 104 faculty and staff members and then, in a move that at first glance seemed to add insult to injury, immediately filed a class-action suit against six of the dismissed teachers.

The crisis began late in November when the Illinois board of higher education asked the university to trim its $50 million annual budget by roughly 5%, or about $2.7 million. The slash was made necessary largely by a decline in enrollments, which have dropped from 23,500 in 1970 to 19,300 this fall. Claiming that it had already cut other costs to the bone, the administration ordered department chairmen to lop heads. Less than two weeks after the order, letters went out to 64 faculty members, including 28 with tenure, and 40 administrative staffers, ending their employment as of next June. Hardest hit was the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which lost about one-third of its faculty.

Financial Crisis. Then why the lawsuit? The university explained that its contract with the faculty allows it to fire professors --even those with tenure--on grounds of incompetence or "financial exigency"; the suit seeks to establish that a bona fide financial crisis does in fact exist. "Unless this matter is dealt with by a declaratory judgment," says the complaint, the university "will be faced with hundreds of different claims . . . which would in turn result in absolutely unbearable economic, legal and administrative burdens."

Although class-action suits are almost always filed on behalf of a group of people with a common grievance, the Southern Illinois suit is being brought against a class of defendants--a switch that the university's lawyer, John Fierich, says is perfectly legal under Illinois common law. In fact, he and President Derge maintain that the suit will actually benefit everyone concerned. By making it unnecessary for the faculty members to bring suit over the firings, they explain, the university may be making it easier for them to find other jobs; some institutions refuse to hire people who have sued other universities. Says Derge: "Some faculty members can't afford a long and expensive legal battle. We're saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees."

The fired faculty members view the situation in a somewhat different light. "I feel as though I'm being sued for no damn reason other than that I'm being fired," says Robert R. Harrell, a tenured associate professor of English and one of the six defendants. As head of the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors--the official guardian of academic freedom and tenure--Harrell is particularly concerned by what he believes was a lack of due process in the hurried head chopping. The budget cuts were recommended, not ordered, he notes, "and there has been no granting of hearings, no effort to try to keep faculty on." The A.A.U.P. has condemned the firings and retained a lawyer for the defendants, but as yet no countersuit has been filed.

The Southern Illinois fight is being watched by educators for its impact on tenure, which is already under attack at other universities. "This is the biggest thing hitting higher education in well over a generation," says Harrell. "If the university accomplishes its purpose, it will have effectively destroyed tenure." Counters Fierich: "I don't see that at all. I think we're simply going to define certain areas of tenure." Whatever the outcome, it seems likely that after the events at Southern Illinois, tenured professors can no longer be certain that they have permanent job security.

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