by the Texas AAUP Office of Faculty Representation

On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, the Lamar University Faculty Senate decided on a no-confidence vote against the Chair of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at Lamar University. In response to the same motion, the Senate also voted to censure the Dean of Engineering. 

Some issues contributing to this decision included allegations that the administrators have not allowed faculty to have a voice in key departmental matters such as curriculum changes and have shown disrespect to faculty. Since the first collective grievance by all departmental faculty and staff was filed on November 28, 2022, multiple additional grievances have been filed by Mechanical Engineering faculty against their Chair. The university has not responded to nor addressed the formal grievances in a timely manner. Instead, prohibited retaliation against departmental faculty for filing grievances and exercising their Academic Freedom has allegedly been committed by the Chair on more than one occasion. To date, no hearing has been set for any of the filed formal grievances. The University has not prioritized resolving any of them. 

The Texas State University System and therefore Lamar University do not require a grievance hearing date in a definitive timeline, nor does it require a committee of faculty to hear the grievances. This is in direct opposition to shared governance principles adopted by the AAUP in its 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities. This statement, which was jointly formulated with the American Council on Education and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, calls for shared responsibility among the different components of institutional government and specifies areas of primary responsibility for governing boards, administrations, and faculties. It remains the Association’s central policy document relating to academic governance. This 1966 Statement strongly suggests that the faculty has primary responsibility for such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process. On these matters, the power of review or final decision lodged in the governing board or delegated by it to the president should be exercised adversely only in exceptional circumstances, and for reasons communicated to the faculty. It is desirable that the faculty should, following such communication, have opportunity for further consideration and further transmittal of its views to the president or board. 

Lamar University is a member of the American Council on Education (ACE). Both the Lamar University Foundation and the Texas State University System are members of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB). This 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities was entered into by AAUP representing faculty, the ACE representing university and college presidents, and the AGB representing Boards of Regents.