Professor Petitions Court on SDSU Cuts

A San Diego State University professor filed a petition in Superior Court on Thursday to require the university to follow its own policies for eliminating nine academic departments.

The petition for a writ of mandate contends that the administration failed to comply with university policy requiring that faculty and students be consulted when their programs have been targeted for elimination.

The petition was filed by Dan Whitney, chairman of the anthropology department, one of nine departments in which the entire faculty has been given layoff notices effective in October. Whitney is joined on the petition by Dean Auger, a graduate student majoring in German and Russian languages, and Wendy Elwood, an undergraduate student in the family studies department. All faculty members in Auger’s and Elwood’s departments have been given layoff notices.

Named as respondents on the petition are SDSU President Thomas Day; Barry Munitz, chancellor of the California State University, and the Board of Trustees of California State University.

An attorney in the office of CSU’s general counsel characterized the layoffs as an “emergency response” to massive budget cuts projected by the state Legislature. The university still holds out the hope that total dissolution of departments can be avoided, said William Knight, the general counsel who advises SDSU.

Although no courses will likely be offered in the targeted departments next fall, the university has yet to officially eliminate the nine programs, Knight said. Programs can be “reincarnated,” depending on budget allocations, Knight said.

“What we have is a difference of opinion over when the policy applies,” Knight said. The university maintains that the provisions necessary to eliminate departments do not yet apply, Knight said.

“I don’t want to appear disingenuous,” Knight said. “There is a systemic problem with state funding. And, if it’s clear we are not going to get the funding to continue programs (in the long run), then we’ll go through the process described in the policy.”

In dispute is a process outlined in what is referred to in the petition as “the San Diego State Policy File.” The procedure includes: reviewing programs being considered for elimination; consulting students and faculty likely to be effected and offering means by which students already enrolled can earn their degrees.

Whitney said the university, through faculty layoffs, is performing a “de facto” dismantling of nine programs and has not provided students in those disciplines a reasonable way to complete their studies at SDSU.

“For most of them, they either transfer or don’t finish,” Whitney said.

University officials have said that plans will be made to assist students in affected majors. Course requirements may be adjusted, and transfer credits also may be more widely accepted.

Since early last month, when the university announced its response to projected budget slashing, Day has adamantly maintained that layoffs are the most practical way to reduce the budget by $11.5 million, or 8%. The university has forecast an 8% cut, however, speculation on the actual percentage that will be approved has ranged from 6% to as high as 15%.

One hundred ninety-three university employees, including 145 tenured and probationary-tenure professors, were given layoff notices.

On Monday, Day is scheduled to address a special meeting of the Academic Senate, during which he will give an update on the administration’s plan.