This is a guest post by Steve Harris, a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science who has taught at Saint Louis University for twenty years. He recently became president of the SLU chapter of AAUP.

Father Lawrence Biondi, president of Saint Louis University, is widely recognized, off and on campus, as having constructed, over the past quarter century, a unified and beautiful campus out of what had long been a motley collection of disparate buildings.  In addition, he presided over the elevation of the university into the ranks of nationally recognized research institutions.  However, his turn to internal reorganization of the university in the last several years has led to increasing dissatisfaction with what many on campus see as an authoritarian and destructive rule.  This summer ended with a very public and acrimonious rupture with the dean of the Law School.  And then things got worse.

At the very beginning of the fall semester, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Manoj Patankar (elevated to this position three years ago), presented to the University Faculty Senate Executive Committee a series of “proposals” (in language showing he intended for them to go into effect by January, 2013) that would have revolutionized faculty evaluation and workload assignment with a highly detailed numerical calculus of quantity and quality of work, and in particular would have revoked the protections of tenure—this despite the fact that all faculty contracts legally incorporate the Faculty Manual, which defines tenure in the usual sense, and which legally can be amended only upon agreement of the Faculty Senate and the Board of Trustees.  Amidst the predictable outpouring of faculty outrage, the VP was forced to withdraw his proposals. But the damage was done, as far as trust in the VPAA by the faculty was concerned—this was not his first brush against faculty involvement in organizational changes. Resounding votes of no confidence in the VPAA were passed in September: first by the Arts & Sciences Faculty Council and then by the Faculty Senate.

But President Biondi only reaffirmed his support for the VP.  Accordingly, the A&S Faculty Council in October voted no confidence in the president—again, with near unanimity—on the sole grounds of his not heeding the previous vote.  In addition, the A&S College organized much publicity concerning general and pervasive dissatisfaction with the president due to his style of leadership and the path it has taken the university in terms of finances, the impact on academics, and consequent national reputation.  At the end of the month, with no movement by the president save for a last-minute letter disputing the facts asserted by A&S on the university’s progress, the Faculty Senate followed with a very general, near-unanimous no confidence vote in the president; and the next day the undergraduate Student Government Association did likewise.

The only response thus far has been a brief message from the president saying the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees has decided to commission an independent consulting firm to survey the university constituencies in the near future.

You can learn more about what is happening at SLU on our website: https://sites.google.com/a/slu.edu/aaup-slu-interim/home/current-issues