ZT: UTMB教授大为震惊:校方裁员3,000人,包括83名终身faculty


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送交者: yell 于 2008-12-08, 12:25:17:

http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/Biology/31210922.html

Fired faculty speak out

Tenured professors who were given the pink slip last week by the University
of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston said they felt "shocked" and "
betrayed" by the action, and have been given little rationale for why they
were singled out, and little direction on what to do until they leave.

In total, the medical school fired more than 3,000 people -- around one-
third of its total staff, including 83 tenured and tenure track faculty and
44 non-tenure track researchers -- after Hurricane Ike tore through the
campus in September.

Tenured and tenure-track professors who were fired will be paid though
August. Until then, however, whether they keep working or not to finish up
research projects or teaching obligations is between the fired researcher
and their department head, according to William New, UTMB's associate dean
for research administration.

Associate professor Malcolm Brodwick worked at UTMB for 35 years before
being sacked last week. Although he doesn't have his own research grant at
the moment, he is actively engaged in collaborative biophysics research and
is the course director for the cardiovascular/pulmonary graduate program.
That's why, when he heard there were going to be layoffs, "I thought that I
was going to be immune," he told The Scientist.

His department chair called him into his office last Monday (Nov. 24) to
tell him the bad news. Around 10 people from his department -- neuroscience
and cell biology -- were fired under the so-called "reduction in force" (RIF
), but Brodwick was the first to know because his department chair told
everyone in alphabetical order. "I was a little shocked when I learned I was
RIFed," he said. "I wasn't prepared."

Brodwick's department chair, Henry Epstein, told him there were external
guidelines for choosing who was given the boot, but these directives have
never been made public, Brodwick said. "I think [i was fired] because I'm 64
and close to retirement."

Epstein declined to comment about the specific guidelines, saying only: "It
was a very careful, thoughtful process. It wasn't done overnight."

Responding to Brodwick's allegation and to requests for the criteria used in
choosing faculty in the layoffs, UTMB spokesperson Raul Reyes sent The
Scientist the following statement: "Faculty decisions were made in
accordance with the UT System Regents Rules, which require committee review
for the elimination of academic programs and positions. The rules specify
the factors to consider, which include academic qualifications and talents,
the needs of the programs, past academic performance and potential future
contributions. Tenure was considered only if two or more individuals were
equally qualified."

Brodwick said he now plans to fulfill his teaching obligations through mid-
January, and then he will start looking for new work. In the meantime,
however, Brodwick said he feels "like a leper, a pariah on campus. I'm not
100% a faculty member."

Nancy Wills -- a tenured professor also in the department neuroscience and
cell biology, a member of the faculty senate, and the director of UTMB's
systems physiology graduate course -- has had a tough year. After a
financially difficult divorce, two salary cuts, a family illness, the loss
of her home in the hurricane, and a major car accident, she learned of her
termination in an email.

Wills, 59, said she plans to retire when her contract runs out in August.
Despite years of grant funding, including being one of last year's grant
recipients from the blindness-research foundation Hope For Vision, her
highest salary was at the lowest quartile for her field, and she in unsure
how she'll make ends meet.

"Everyone is so fearful," Kay Sandor, a tenured associate professor of
nursing, told The Scientist. "Whether we speak or not, our jobs are at risk."

Sandor was not fired last week, but was one of the co-claimants -- along
with the Texas Faculty Association, a local merchant, and a retired UTMB
employee -- who filed a lawsuit Tuesday (Dec. 2) against University of Texas
officials for breaching the Texas Open Meetings Act. "I took a big risk,"
she said, "[but] I think it's important that at least one faculty person was
in that suit."

Mary Kanz, an associate professor of pathology who has worked at UTMB since
1979, realized she was being fired "as soon as my chairperson's secretary
called and said he needed to speak with me," she told The Scientist.

Kanz's meeting with her department chair consisted of three sentences: One,
she was told her faculty position "no longer existed." Two, she'd continue
to be paid through August, but was expected to perform her regular duties.
Three, "I want to thank you for your contributions to this department," Kanz
recalled.

Kanz's grant funding ran out in January 2007, and she's mostly been teaching
since then. "If you don't have grant funding, you're basically considered a
second-class citizen," she said.

At 65, she said she plans to retire when her contract runs out. "I had hoped
to have one more year to put more money in my savings account, but that won
't be happening now."

Another newly out-of-work faculty member, a tenured associate professor and
director of a graduate program who asked to remain anonymous, told The
Scientist that she felt "bitter and betrayed and thrown away."

"I kind of feel like I've spent most of my career in service to UTMB," she
said, noting that like many of the other faculty fired, she does a lot of
teaching and administrative work. "It's a horrible feeling."

The Texas Faculty Association is asking fired faculty members who wish to
appeal the termination decision to contact them. Under of the University of
Texas Board of Regents rule 31003, they have 30 days from the date they were
first notified of the layoff to do so.




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