MOVING TO FRONT FROM FRIDAY AFTERNOON--MANY THANKS TO THE SEVERAL DOZEN READERS WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED MORE THAN $2,000 SINCE FRIDAY AFTERNOON! I HOPE OTHER READERS WILL CONTRIBUTE TODAY. IF ONLY 1 OUT OF EVERY 20 VISITORS TO THE BLOG TODAY WERE TO CONTRIBUTE $10, THIS WOULD RAISE ANOTHER $5,000, AND QUITE A BIT MORE IF READERS WHO ARE ABLE CONTRIBUTE CONTRIBUTE $25 OR $50, INSTEAD OF $10. A DECISIVE COURT VICTORY FOR THE TERMINATED FACULTY WILL SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE TO OTHER UNIVERSITIES CONTEMPLATING SIMILAR VIOLATIONS OF THE CONTRACTUAL RIGHTS OF FACULTY.
Philosopher John Bussanich (New Mexico) called to my attention the outrageous conduct of the University of Akron, which decided to eliminate nearly 100 faculty positions, many of them tenured. If Akron gets away with this, the precedent set will be dangerous. Some of the faculty are now fighting back in court; you can contribute to their legal fees here, and I encourage you to do so, as I have. I reached out to get information about their legal representation and confirmation that all monies would be used for purposes of vindicating the legal rights of the terminated faculty in court. Professor Del Rey Loven, one of the victims of the purge (a tenured professor with 14 years of service), kindly replied with the following and gave permission to share it with readers:
Our attorney is S. David Worhatch.
In addition to working with Mr. Worhatch, some of us have also consulted with attorney William S. Whitaker, and he was co-counsel during the first phase of our case. Although labor law is not his specialty, Whitaker served as a second set of eyes on our legal documents and proceedings.
All funds will be applied to the costs of our case:
- Attorney fees
- Court costs
And anticipated is the need for
- Expert witness fees, particularly for an accounting firm to audit the University of Akron financials, as our grievance includes the assertion that they did not fulfill their contractual obligations to prove that the ONLY way they could achieve their budget goals was to toss aside contractually agreed upon retrenchment procedures, supersede tenure, and terminate 97 mostly senior faculty.
- In the unlikely event there are unused funds when our case(s) are resolved, we will meet as a group of six and vote on an appropriate use.
Our GoFundMe donations are deposited into a dedicated Chase checking account that is co-managed by Certified Public Accountant Douglas B. Woods, and myself (Del Rey Loven). All drafts from the account are first presented to a meeting of all six co-plaintiffs in the case, for their approval, and that check is written by Douglas Woods, CPA. [H]e is copied on this message.
The first named plaintiff in our case, if you look up court records, is David M. Tokar. He served as liaison for the first four months of this ordeal, at which point I was asked to step into that role, which is the reason I am the one answering your email.
As you might guess, we are in an uphill battle. Powerful forces are at work against higher education, forces which devalue research, professional experience, diversity and academic freedom. Destroying tenure and the effectiveness of the AAUP is high on their agenda. At our institution it was a "take no prisoners" approach in 2020, whereby the President and his team refused to consider any option other than the complete annihilation of as many senior faculty as possible. An independent audit at the time, and the final publication of the fiscal year 2020 financials, disproved the need to terminate ANY faculty. When challenged, UA President Miller had the gall to warn terminated faculty that any lawsuit would be futile, that the university could use the resources they saved by firing us (our salaries) to fight us in court to the end. And this barbarism is spreading, as is detailed in our outreach email to university colleagues across the country.
The cause, and what is at stake, is much bigger than our particular case, I'm sure you already knew. We sincerely hope to make a difference.
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