Rift Grows Between UNI Faculty and Administration

Tensions between University of Northern Iowa faculty leaders and administration continues flare up over plans for budget cutting.

UNI Faculty Senate today released a statement "denouncing" administration for "the lack of proper consultation and process with regards to proposed program closures." This comes days after faculty leaders voted "" in UNI President Ben Allen and Provost Gloria Gibson.

A spokeswoman for the university today countered faculty criticisms, calling it "unfortunate that this information is getting out" when no decisions have been made on academic program cuts. Faculty are causing unneeded stress on students and damaging the reputation of the university, spokeswoman Stacey Christensen said.

"It's unfortunate to be sending a message that our university will be weak because of this," Christensen said. "These descions will make the university strong in the end."

United Faculty, the union representing UNI faculty, is using details it says its obtained from information requests to assert the administration has plans to close undergraduate in physics, geography, religion, philosophy, and the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. This would result in the elimination of 30 faculty positions, according to the union.

Christensen declined to get into specifics, but called the list of programs being outed as on the chopping block rumors at this point, and says they likely surfaced from preliminary drafts of the plan. Plans can still change, she said.

Read the full Faculty Senate statement, and for comprehensive coverage of the closure and other budget cuts, including the UNI students' "study-in" on campus this week, visit the Cedar Falls Patch topic page. Get notified of the latest on Price Lab and other UNI news by signing up to the Cedar Falls Patch newsletter. 

Christensen said the university has acted appropriately and followed the process it had too, despite that some feel decision making has been less transparent than it should

The Faculty Senate, in the statement approved today, says they were consulted two weeks ago. The program closures are expected to be announced by the end of the week.

"Let it be known that the UNI Faculty Senate does not endorse or condone any recommendations being made for program closures nor does it fully understand the criteria or justifications for specific recommendations," the statement reads. "The UNI Faculty Senate condemns the process used to arrive at these recommendations as contrary to the accepted practices for an institution of higher learning."