The Pathways Plan and other

Administrative Errors

October 29, 2008. Jan Melancon testifies in a deposition called by Loyola.

October 27, 2008. Mary Ann Doyle testifies in a deposition called by Loyola.

October 22, 2008. Margie Dermody testifies in a deposition called by Loyola.

October 20, 2008. Ken Messa testifies in a deposition called by Loyola.

October 15, 2008.  The Curriculum Committee of the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences voted to approve and send forth to the University Curriculum Committee the minor in Computational Science.  The faculty of Natural Sciences worked together since Fall 2006 to bring Computer Science (eliminated in the Pathways Plan) back to Loyola.  The Computational Science minor is a step to achieve this goal.

October 14, 2008. Mary Blue testifies in a deposition called by Loyola and as a witness in the cases of the other plaintiffs.

October 13, 2008. Bill Hammel testifies in a deposition called by Loyola.

October 9 and 10, 2008.  The first Board of Trustees meeting of the 2008-2009 academic year takes place.  The Board is informed that the projected $4 million deficit for the previous academic year (2007-2008) has grown to $5 million.  The bulk of difference is attributed to a clerical error in Student Affairs.  Board members express surprise because all communications from Fr. Wildes reported only good news throughout the summer months.

October 7, 2008.  SCAP votes to reconstitute the BA in Economics within the College of Social Sciences.  Pathways had consolidated this BA, which was then housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, with the BA in Economics in the College of Business.  In the presentation (which took place at the September 23 SCAP meeting), Professor Bill Barnett said that this consolidation never made any sense to him when Pathways was unveiled but that he and his colleagues decided to wait to change this decision until now.  He stated that this program did not cost the university any additional dollars prior to Pathways and it does not cost any additional dollars now.  However, he hopes this program provides students with more choice of majors.

September 29, 2008.  Maria Calzada testifies in a deposition as witness requested by Mary Blue, Nancy Dupont, Bill Hammel, Ken Messa, Jan Melancon, Mary Ann Doyle, and Margie Dermody, who are all suing Loyola for bad faith breach of contract as a result of Pathways.  Dr. Calzada was the Senate representative to SCAP in the spring of 2006 and the chair of the URTC during the appeal process for these faculty members.  Recall that the URTC unanimously found in the spring of 2007 that the university violated the Faculty Handbook when these faculty members were terminated (See March 8, 2007, entry in this Timeline).

September 9, 2008.  The first SCAP meeting of the semester takes place.  Provost Kvet leads the meeting in a refreshing fashion.  He forms a subcommittee to review the Academic Affairs Emergency Preparedness plan in view of the Gustav evacuation. Walter Harris brought this document to SCAP originally as a final document with unrealistic assumptions and scenarios and now for the first time the faculty are invited to creatively contribute to it.

August 29 - September 7, 2008.  On the third anniversary of Katrina, Provost Kvet decides to close the university in preparation for Hurricane Gustav which is threatening the area in the next few days.  The region experiences extensive blackouts that prevent many to continue online instruction as prescribed in the Academic Affairs Emergency Preparedness document put together by the Provost Harris and John Cornwell in the 2006-2007 academic year.

August 4, 2008.  Dr. Connie Rodriguez testifies in a deposition witness requested by Mary Blue, Nancy Dupont, Bill Hammel, Ken Messa, Jan Melancon, Mary Ann Doyle, and Margie Dermody, who are all suing Loyola for bad faith breach o contract as a result of Pathways.  Dr. Rodriguez was an at-large member of the University Senate executive committee and issued the motions of no confidence in the process and in the administration.  She had also participated in 2 meetings with members of the BoT Academic Affairs committee during December 2006 and March 2007.

August 1, 2008.  Ed Kvet officially assumes the position of Provost (not Interim Provost).  The institution sends out a collective sigh of relief at this encouraging change.  The only remaining Pathways administrator is Kevin Wildes.

June 26, 2008.  Loyola announces that Jay Calamia is the new Vice President of Finance and Administration.

June-August 2008.  Faculty from various departments resign or retire, including Drs. Steven Scariano, Maureen Shuh, Andrew Knight, Anita Day, Trish Del Nero, Jerry Dauterieve. Many express concern about who among the remaining faculty will be willing to continue their hard work in shared governance.

April 9, 2008.  SCAP voted unanimously to reinstate (actually, to un-suspend) the B.A. in Music Composition, which was suspended under the Pathways Plan.

December 7, 2007. Frank Scully testifies in a deposition called by seven tenured faculty members who are suing Loyola for bad faith breach of contract.

November 9, 2007. Harris testifies in a deposition called by seven tenured faculty members who are suing Loyola for bad faith breach of contract.

October 25-26, 2007. Wildes testifies in a deposition called by seven tenured faculty members who are suing Loyola for bad faith breach of contract.

August 16, 2007. The lawsuits filed by eight tenured faculty members are ongoing.

July 26, 2007. Suzanne Dietzel resigns as Director of Women's Studies to take a position at the Ohio University.

July 24, 2007. Laura Gallien, Associate Chaplain of University Ministry resigns her position at Loyola to teach at Lusher.

June 29, 2007. Wildes finally sends a letter to the URTC in response to its unanimous recommdations made on March 8, 2007, that the administration did not follow the contractual Faculty Handbook Ch. 9, Sec E. Specifically, the administration did not follow the proper process for program discontinuance, the administration did not fulfill its obligation to offer or retrain any faculty member for another position in the university and, failing that, the administration not offer severance salary equitably adjusted to the faculty members' past and potential service. Wildes simply says he disagrees with their findings.

June 22, 2007. The University of New Orleans has now reinstated all furloughed faculty. The furloughs were due to expire June 30. All have now been offered their previous positions, with the same tenure status and benefits or alternate positions with the same tenure status and benefits in cases in which the department was discontinued. So now LSUHSC and UNO have reinstated everyone who wanted to be reinstated, SUNO has reinstated most and is negotiating with a few, Tulane has come to agreements with all but two faculty members.

The only New Orleans university that did not declare financial exigency is the ONLY university that has remained steadfast in its refusal to negotiate with faculty.

June 9, 2007. By Unanimous vote, the American Association of University Professors placed Loyola University New Orleans on its censure list. Representatives of the 45,000-member organization agreed that Loyola's administration acted in gross disregard of the universities applicable policies and of the AAUP-recommended standards which the policies track. Loyola's administration is the only one that the association said violated BOTH the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities. The only question asked before the vote was taken was if there was anything the association could do that is worse than censure.

May 10, 2007. The University Senate receives a brief written reply from Wildes regarding "A Call for Conversation." His comments follow point-by-point each item that was passed by the Senate. HIghlights: He believes that the Faculty Handbook is not the sole governing document, that he cannot address the issue of terminated faculty, that he has responded to the AAUP, and that he has not reviewed the URTC findings. Wildes did not attend the meeting in person although note that he has rarely attended Senate meetings since becoming president.

Elections are held at the May meeting each year. For the first time in its history the Senate adjourned without electing a Chair.

April 26, 2007. Harris announces that Ms. Lori Zawistowski will be the Interim Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management.

April 25, 2007. Harris announces that he has chosen Mary McCay to serve as Interim Dean of the College of HuNS. Since only three faculty members stood for nomination and election and the College passed a motion to submit three names, the same three faculty nominees were submitted along with the number of votes each received. Note that the vote count was Rev. Jim Carter with 52 votes, Dr. Maria Calzada with 49 votes, and McCay with 38 votes. Neither Carter nor Calzada was offered the position.

April 23, 2007. Dean of Admission Debbie Stieffel resigns from Loyola to accept a job with Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania as Vice President for Enrollment Management.

April 19, 2007.  The Faculty of HuNS receives an email attachment from the Dean's office.  The document is called "Academic Affairs Disaster Preparedness Recovery Plan (Draft)."  Highlights from the document include:

• The university will not close during an evacuation and academic instruction will continue in a distance-learning mode as long as the academic term has begun.
• To the extent possible, faculty and staff will be retained.
• Students will be required to sign on to Blackboard to keep up with course assignments within 48 hours of evacuation.
• Course instruction will begin within 48 hours of an evacuation through distance education and will be maintained in all courses for a period of up to three weeks.

The Faculty Handbook is not mentioned at all in the document.  One committee (SCAP) saw a previous draft of the document in November 2006.  The Faculty of HuNS has not see any version of the plan until April 19 (the faculty were asked only to provide emergency contact information last year).   The document focuses mostly on teaching, no mention of research except to indicate that faculty in the sciences and equipment intensive disciplines are responsible for their research laboratories (this is not different as the university has not assisted any faculty with research equipment and materials pre-Katrina).

April 10, 2007. The first anniversary of the termination of 11 tenured faculty member and 6 tenure track faculty members.

April 8, 2007. Four more lawsuits against Loyola and its senior administrators are filed by terminated tenured faculty members. The charges are breach and bad faith breach of contract. A total of seven suits have been filed so far.

April 6, 2007. Two more lawsuits against Loyola and its senior administrators are filed by terminated tenured faculty members. The charges are breach and bad faith breach of contract.

April 5, 2007. The Loyola Institute for Ministry (LIM) moves from the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences to the College of Social Sciences, and LIM has been renamed on the Loyola website as "Religious Education and pastoral Studies (LIM)." The process that was followed were conversations between Interim Dean Lorenz, the Director of LIM (Mark Markuly), and Walter Harris.

April 2, 2007. The first lawsuit against Loyola and its senior administrators is filed by a terminated tenured faculty member. The charges are breach and bad faith breach of contract.

March 27, 2007. SCAP unanimously voted to unsuspend Physics, the Masters in Music Performance, and the Masters in Music Therapy. The Board has final approval at the May meeting of the Trustees; however, Dr. Harris gave permission to start recruitment in these programs even before the Board has approved.

March 23, 2007. The second Teach-In was held on campus. Students, at least one alumnus, and faculty from HuNS, Music, and Social Sciences attended. At least one administration representative, Ms. Mickie Hawkshead who is an Assistant to the Provost, was present, and possibly a Maroon reporter was also in attendance. Some were surprised by two items of discussion: the one-time money that the Provost has available and the adverse consequences of AAUP censure on the administration that will trickle down to effect recruitment and retention of quality faculty.

March 22, 2007. The Provost announces he has a pool of money between $300,000 and $500,000 and requests proposals from the Colleges for spending the money.

March 15, 2007.  The College of Humanities and Natural Sciences receives a reply from the Jesuit Corporation regarding the Call for Conversation and the Call for Action.  While “some members of the Corporation share many of these concerns,” the Jesuit Corporation reiterates the fact that the Corporation has ceded administrative and operating control to the Board of Trustees and the President of the University.

March 15, 2007 (October 26, 2006, and November 16, 2006).  The College of Humanities and Natural Sciences passes “A Call for Action.”  The document was divided into two sections:  Part I (Process Issues) and Part II (Personnel Issues).  Part I passed without amendments in the October 26, 2006, College Assembly by voice vote (almost unanimous), and Part II was tabled.  At the November 16, 2006, meeting, Part II initially passed with one word changed (item #1, the word “immediately” was changed to “as soon as possible”) but quorum was called; therefore, the paper ballot for Part II was sent out to the faculty.  The result of the paper ballot for Part II was reported today (42.5 ayes, 14 nays, 2 abstentions, 1 invalid ballot).

March 13, 2007. Dean Ed Kvet reports to SCAP that the College of Music and Fine Arts has reached an agreement with Our Lady of Holy Cross College to serve the estimated 80 Music Education majors (about half of the music majors) that had been affected by the termination of our education program. OLHC will teach four education courses on Loyola's campus to certify music ed majors. Dean Kvet reported that the arrangement was approved by the BESE board after much negotiation and bureaucracy roadblocks, as this is the first arrangement of this type that the BESE board has approved. Dean Debbie was very interested in this arrangement and asked if it could apply to other programs, which would be important for recruitment. Dean Kvet suggested that while other programs may be able to take advantage of the agreement in the future, that this is not automatic because requirements vary from program to program.

March 8, 2007. The University Rank and Tenure Committee issues its decision on the termination appeals of five tenured faculty members. The URTC votes unanimously that the administration did not follow the contractual Faculty Handbook Ch. 9, Sec E. Specifically, the administration did not follow the proper process for program discontinuance, the administration did not fulfill its obligation to offer or retrain any faculty member for another position in the university and, failing that, the administration not offer severance salary equitably adjusted to the faculty members' past and potential service.

March 8, 2007.  The University Senate passes the following motion (24 ayes, 8 nays, 0 abstentions):
“Whereas the AAUP’s Special Committee on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Universities confirms in its draft report that the University Administration has failed to respond to issues of faculty rights related to acceptable principles and practices of shared governance,

Whereas the University Administrators have placed themselves at risk for censure by the AAUP, and

Whereas we must focus immediately on re-building the relationship between the faculty and administration by restoring the shared governance processes outlined in the Faculty Handbook;

Therefore, the University Senate (1.) directs the Senate Executive Committee to write to the Board of Trustees and the President strongly recommending that they move with all deliberate speed in implementing all of the process issues in the University Senate Call for Action and (2.) requests that the President reports back to the Senate in the first Senate meeting after the next meeting of the Board of Trustees.”

The University Senate previously passed two documents, “Draft Program Review Criteria, Loyola University New Orleans, November 29, 2006” and “The University Senate’s Call for Action (Part I – Process Issues),” on February 8, 2007.

March 2, 2007. The first Teach-In of the new millennium is staged at Loyola. Monroe 157 was mostly filled with students, faculty were present from the Colleges of HuNS, Social Sciences, Library, and Business. A Maroon reporter, the Administrative secretary for Harris, and Admissions Dean Steiffel were also present.

March 2, 2007.  The Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees met, and after a short presentation, the Committee went into executive session, excluding the SGA student representatives and the Senate representatives, Drs. Elizabeth Hammer and Laurie Joyner.

March 1, 2007.  The Board of Trustees meet with the Senate Executive Committee (similar to the meeting that took place on December 6, 2007).  Two important differences between this meeting from the December meeting are that only Frois, Mestayer, and Massa were present and that both Wildes and Harris were also present.  Highlights from the meeting include:

    * None of the Board members wanted to talk about AAUP and the possibility of censure.  They rebuffed at least two attempts by the Senate EC to speak about this.
    * There was discussion on enrollment data that Cornwell had generated.  The Senate EC pointed out that the data is not given to the faculty, Harris said that SCAP did not do its job and did not report back on the Delaware Study data (thus, the Delaware Study is being re-used), and the Board members asked why more data should be given to SCAP when SCAP cannot do the work that it is supposed to do.
    * Harris claimed that Loyola only lost 56 students due to restructuring, saying that Pathways did not cause a lot of student loss.
    * The Senate EC pressed on the enrollment data by providing the data (from the STAT screen of SIS).  Harris asked where the data was obtained and was told about the STAT screen.  The STAT data and the Cornwell data are almost identical.  The Senate EC pointed out that if one looks at a comparison of Pathwayed departments versus non-Pathwayed departments and compare only freshmen and sophomore students which is most relevant as their loss is accrued through the entire post-Pathways period, then 147 students (freshman+sophomore) were lost from Pathwayed departments and 46 students (freshman+sophomore) were lost from non-Pathwayed departments for a grand total of 193 students (freshman + sophomore) lost due to restructuring.  The increase in number of students had Pathwayed departments realized the same attrition as non-Pathwayed departments would have been 132 students; therefore, 132 students (freshmen+sophomore) were lost due to Pathways alone.  Net revenue lost given a discounted tuition rate of $14,000 per student (current rate) = $1.8 million lost.
    * The Board members seemed to be interested in this loss of students while Wildes and Harris continued to say that SCAP did not do its job and that we must “move forward.”
    * The Board said that we keep “opening old wounds” and the Senate EC said that the Board can call it  “opening old wounds” OR we can say “we’re missing 132 students and how can we get them back?”

March 1-2, 2007.  The Board of Trustees meets and committees of the Board meet on campus.

March 1, 2007. Associate Dean Laurie Joyner announces that she will be leaving Loyola to join Rollins College to become Dean of the Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences.

March 1, 2007. The enrollment at NOLA universities was highlighted in USA Today. Pictures of three university presidents were featured: Cowen of Tulane, Francis of Xavier, and Wildes of Loyola. The caption under Wildes' picture read "Wildes: College Faculty voted 'no confidence'."

February 26, 2007. Frank Scully announces he will be leaving Loyola University at the end of this academic year to be the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Emmanuel College in Boston

January 22, 2007. The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article summarizing the AAUP report. On Loyola, the report said:

The report says Loyola "proceeded in gross disregard" of its own policies when
it fired 17 tenured faculty members on stated grounds of program discontinuance
without trying to place them in alternative positions. It also criticizes
university officials for creating a top-down reorganization plan without proper
consultation with the appropriate faculty bodies. And it faults them for not
responding to calls from the faculty for cooperation following faculty votes of
no confidence in the administration.

January 13, 2007. The Draft of the "Report of the Special Committee on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Universities" done by the American Associattion of University Professors arrives. The 115 page report includes three conclusions for Loyola:

1. The administration of Loyola University New Orleans, in acting to terminate the appointments of seventeen members of the faculty on stated grounds of program discontinuance, proceeded in gross disregard of its own applicable official policies and of the Association-recommended standards with which those policies comport.

2. The administration, in rescinding teaching assignments that had been made for some of these faculty members for their terminal year and in barring them from campus access and facilities, effectively subjected them to summary dismissal in violation of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the university's own official tenure policies.

3. In ignoring preogatives and official actions of duly constituted faculty bodies and in being unresponsive to faculty calls for a cooperative relationship following successive faculty votes of no confidence in the administration, the Loyola University New Orleans administration has held to a position inimical to principles of shared governance as enuniciated in the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities.

The 20 pages that specifically discuss Loyola in the Report include comments such as:

"Contrary to the president's words, neither a suggestion box nor a town meeting is an adequate substitute for the kind of thoughtful faculty deliberation the rules require."

"But no justification was offered for the brevity of the comment period, no demonstrable need has been shown for the board to have acted so swiftly, and, it suffices to say, the administration declined to engage any more with the urging for more time than it had with the specific criticism leveled at the data supplied and the total want of analyses."

"The insuperable obstacle to making any judgment in the matter is the stark fact that a mass of raw data -- some only a snapshot at a moment in time or over a short period of time -- does not drive inexorably toward any obvious programmatic decision."

"The Special Committee can conceive of no justifiable reason for such abusive and humiliating treatment [of the terminated faculty] -- and the administration has offered none."

January 5, 2007. At a "sparsely attended" convocation it is announced that John Cornwell will be leaving Loyola to go to Rice University by March 1, 2007

December 8, 2006.  The Academic Affairs Committee of the Board meets and during the executive session, Fr. Mark Massa, Board member and Chair of the Committee, asks that the student representatives stay and that the Senate representatives (Drs. Elizabeth Hammer and Laurie Joyner) stay.   Remember that in the October 2006 Board meeting, the Senate representatives were asked to leave during the executive session. 

December 7, 2006.  The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate (Joe Harris, Marcus Kondkar, Glenn Hymel, Connie Rodriguez, Thomas Spence, John Murphy) met with a small group of the Board of Trustees (Ted Frois - Chair of the Board, Suzanne Mestayer - Vice Chair of the Board, Fr. Michael Graham - President of Xavier Ohio, Fr. Mark Massa - Faculty at Fordham, Shawn Donnelly) from 4-6pm to discuss the status of the University.  The Senate Executive Committee will be making a report to the Faculty Senate; however, the following is a summary:

• The Board members did not want to discuss Pathways. 
• All individuals present spoke; thus, there appeared to be a two-way conversation.
• The Board members were surprised that the faculty did not know about the contents of the Pathways Plan until the document was posted on the Provost’s web site in April.  (The Senate members said that the University community did not know anything about Pathways until the posting.)
• The Board members were unaware of specific details such as suspending Physics so that students could not major in Physics but that the faculty was retained.  This was used as an example of the illogical planning of Pathways.
• Board member Massa pointed out that at a Jesuit institution, open dialogue between the administration and the University community is part of the institution.  He asked whether University committees such as SCAP, UPT had met and are meeting.
• Board member Mestayer said that in a business people will always be unhappy with cuts.  Board member Massa answered her by saying that Loyola is not a business but an academic institution.
• Board member Frois was not supportive of the continuation of payment to the University employees (faculty, staff) during Katrina Fall.  Frois was also disappointed that no one thanked Wildes.  The Senate members told him that both the Senate and the College of A & S thanked the president officially.
• Board member Frois indicated that faculty exodus is due to Katrina.  A Senate member said that Katrina caused faculty not to return in Spring or to leave at the end of the Spring semester, but the faculty who are currently looking for other jobs are doing so solely because of Pathways.
• The Board members were disturbed by the VNCs although some did not understand what a VNC meant (they thought it meant that faculty had low morale) and were concerned about morale at the university.
• The Board members are very aware of www.loyno.info.

December 7-8, 2006.  The Board of Trustees meets and committees of the Board meet on campus.

December 4 and 6, 2006. The URTC hears two more appeals from terminated tenured faculty.

December 4, 2006. President W responds to the Senate "Call for Conversation" by sending out a confidential hard-copy only to members of the Senate Executive Committee. The 19-page document, 3/4 of which is cut and pasted from previous documents, does not answer the questions asked by the Senate in its "Call " New arguments for Pathways are presented based on criteria that were never approved by anyone and for which NO data has ever been posted on the Loyola Web site.

November 30, 2006. Came and went. President W did not publish his response to the "Call for Conversation" as promised.

November 6, 13, 20, 2006 University Budget Committee (UBC) meets.
Regarding the 2005-06 final budget: The University was in the red for 2005-06 (minus $4,895,000). All 2006-07 salaries terminated professors due to the Pathways Plan were included in the 2005-06 budget. The 2005-06 final numbers did not include the possible $15 million in Business Interruption Insurance (Loyola has sued the insurer for this money) and the penalty for non-payment by the insurer (already at 50%).
Regarding the current 2006-07 budget: As of October 2006, the University was in the black (plus $1,143,000). The discussion centered around increasing tuition either 6% or 7% for undergraduates and increasing all fees for 2007-08. Dean Steiffel estimates 700 new freshmen and 125 new transfers (total of 825 new students) for 2007-08. In the last ten years, tuition and fees have risen by 87.6% (see 10 year financial history document).
On the November 20th UBC meeting, the SGA introduced a new percent increase of 5%. A committee member asked the UBC whether a zero % increase had been considered. The answer was no. The SGA president addressed this zero % increase by saying that the students would accept a 5% increase in tuition. The motion to increase the tuition by 5%, raise all fees, and raise faculty and staff salaries by 3.5% (the raise was not discussed until the November 20 meeting) initially failed. A re-count was asked. The actual vote tally was evenly split with one abstention. Again, a UBC member asked whether the abstention went with the positive vote, according to Robert's Rules. This was confirmed. The motion to raise tuition by 5%, raise all fees, and raise faculty and staff salaries by 3.5% passed by one vote.

November 13 and 14, 2006 The University Rank and Tenure Committee (composed of elected faculty from all colleges) meets for the first case of appeal by a terminated tenured faculty member due to the Pathways Plan. Note that in the September 21, 2006, meeting with the faculty of the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences that Wildes agreed to reveal the results of any appeals processes and litigation to the HuNS faculty.

October 19, 2006 Dr. George Capowich has accepted the appointment to be interim Director of Grants and Research. The official title of the position is not clear. The appointment is for 18 months, and he was appointed because the university needs help with some grants and proposals that "just haven't been going very well." He will be teaching one course each semester while serving in this position.

October 13, 2006 Dean Scully of HuNS has breakfast with Ted Frois, Chair of the Board of Trustees. During the conversation, Dean Scully gives Frois a copy of "A Call for Action" and a copy of parts of an email that Dr. Mary Blue exchanged with AAUP members regarding her telephone call with Jordan Kurland, General Secretary of the AAUP, regarding the AAUP Special Committee's upcoming report on Loyola University New Orleans.

October 13, 2006 The full committee of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees meets for 30 minutes and then an executive session was called by the chair of the meeting. Except for board members, Walter Harris and Senate Chair Joe Harris, all other attendees were asked to leave, including the Senate elected representatives Dr. Elizabeth Hammer and Dr. Maria Calzada (proxy for Dr. Laurie Joyner who was out of town during the meeting).

October 12, 2006 University Senate meets, votes and passes one motion: Motion for a Second Call for Conversation. The Senate was given a hard copy of A Call for Action.

Passed with 2 opposed and 1 abstention:

"Whereas the document titled A Call for Conversation, its embedded links, and its supplemental document titled A Critique of the Pathways Plan have been publicly available for several months; and

Whereas the aforementioned documents include, but are not limited to, the identification of the following problematic areas associated with the "Pathways Plan": (a) Process Issues/Violations with Regards to the SCAP, (b) Invalid Data Related to the Pathways Plan, and (c) Weak Rationale Offered to Justify the Pathways Plan; and

Whereas the requested conversation with President Wildes and Provost Harris for the purpose of addressing forthrightly the specifics of process violations, invalid data, and weak rationale has yet to occur;

IT IS HEREBY MOVED THAT the University Senate respectfully requests that Fr. Wildes and Provost Harris and/or members of their administrative team respond by November 30, 2006 to all mistakes and concerns outlined in the Critique of the Pathways Plan document approved by this Senate last Spring."

October 11, 2006 A document entitled "A Call for Action" was forwarded to all HuNS department chairs for distribution to the HuNS faculty.

October 10, 2006 HuNS faculty become aware of a document entitled "Satellite Programs" which begins with the statement that Wildes will be looking to develop satellite campuses in Louisiana and elsewhere in the country and that program will need to take place to operate in these satellite campuses. Based upon ideas in the document, program development is actually currriculum development.

October 9, 2006 Channel 26 airs interviews faculty, staff representing Wildes and Harris, and students on the HuNS vote of no confidence during the 5:00 broadcast.

October 9, 2006 Wildes and Harris form the Leadership Task Force to advise them on issues of shared governance. Harris has determined that the Task Force will consist of one elected faculty member and one appointed faculty member from each college. Note that there are several committees that exist to advise Wildes and Harris, including the Faculty Senate (all colleges represented), SCAP (all colleges represented), UPT (all colleges represented), Faculty Handbook Revision Committee (elected by Senate).

October 5, 2006 The College of social sciences meets with the president and provost. When one faculty member asks if they can just go back to being the College of Arts and Sciences, Harris smiles and simply says, "no."

September 28, 2006 The Times Picayune reports "Loyola's largest college votes no confidence in President."

September 26, 2006 The HuNS faculty meets in an official College Assembly at 12:30pm. The meeting was audio taped by the Dean's office. The Chair of the meeting was Dr. Roger White (College of Social Science) and the parliamentarian was Dr. Philip Dynia (College of Social of Science). The motion of VNC was amended into two separate motions so that Wildes' name and Harris' name were considered individually. A motion to consider Harris first was passed, but the faculty did not know the results of the Harris vote while voting on Wildes. A motion also passed to have Dean Scully notify Wildes, Harris, and the Board of Trustess of the results. The results of the vote by secret ballots are as follows:

No confidence in Harris: 70 (87.5%)
Confidence in Harris: 10 (12.5%)

No confidence in Wildes: 61 (76.25%)
Confidence in Wildes: 19 (23.75%)

From the Dean's office, the total number of faculty who signed in today was 74, and the total number of proxies was 9.

September 23, 2006 Fr. Si Hendry sent a response after learning that Harris had quoted him as saying the SCAP report is suspect because it served the self interest of the subcommittee members. Fr. Hendry said his remarks were taken out of context from a UPT meeting and that Harris was not even at the meeting and therefore did not participate in the discussion.

September 21, 2006   Wildes and Harris meet with the HuNS faculty during the College Assembly.  Wildes and Harris opened with introductory remarks and fielded questions from the audience.  Several questions from a list generated by 15 faculty members and forwarded to Wildes and Harris in advance were asked by the audience (http://www.loyno.info/18answers.html).  The Assembly was tape recorded by the Dean’s office and by at least one member of the faculty; thus, all information on this website can be verified from the actual tapes.
A summary of some of the comments made by each or both:

• Mistakes were made.
• The cuts were difficult to make.
• Cuts were made so that faculty in the audience could keep their jobs.
• Payroll for the University almost was not met during Fall 2005.
• Data was manipulated in a positive manner.
• SCAP recommendations were biased since Pathways had a direct impact on the sub-committee members.
• Students interested in Education have been declining, and furthermore, teaching jobs paid so little that students would have a difficult time paying off their college debts so they would probably leave New Orleans.
• No more cuts will be made (however, in the Senate meeting at 3:30, Harris did indicate that suspended programs may be terminated and more positions may be lost).
• Some answers were not provided due to litigation (note that there have yet to be lawsuits filed – all cases are currently under appeal to URTC).
• Faculty governance will be under review by the Senate.
• Wildes did not respond to the May VNC vote because he did not know how to respond.

September 5, 2006 Drs. Guillermo Tonsmann and Elias Khalaf receive a letter from Provost Harris, dated August 31, 2006. In this letter Harris states, “I am writing this letter to clarify my earlier letter of August 25.” (See August 28 entry for reference). Harris continues, “Unfortunately, since the Computer Science program had dwindling enrollment in recent years, it was decided this program was too costly for the university at this time. The university and the Board of Trustees decided that it would pay tenured faculty for one year without requiring them to teach, so that they would be able to devote all of their efforts to identifying a position at another university. In most cases, young, untenured faculty do not have the same difficulty identifying academic jobs and consequently frequently have much more flexibility than more senior faculty. In addition, the university made a commitment to students who were rising seniors in discontinued programs that it would provide the opportunity for them to complete their programs by May 2007. Consequently, the University decided to give untenured faculty the option of breaking the contract that was issued to them last spring or retaining that contract and teaching for another year.”

September 5, 2006 The HuNS faculty members were informed that when the Provost was asked to terminate three administrators, his answer was, "Which one is the worst?" The Dean of HuNS stonewalled the vote of no confidence.

September 5, 2006 The English Department was told by their chair that David Estes will be rejoining their department in Fall 2007.

September 1, 2006 A vote of no confidence motion is posted on the loyno.info blog site and will be put forth on the September 5 College of HuNS Assembly.

August 28, 2006 (First day of classes for Fall 2006) Drs. Guillermo Tonsmann and Elias Khalaf, from the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, receive a letter from Provost Harris, which constitutes the first written communication they receive from the university informing them that their positions will be terminated as a result of Pathways. In the letter, dated August 26, 2006, Harris states, “Though you are not required to do so, it is my understanding that you do plan to teach for the upcoming academic year 2006-07. If this is not the case, please advise Dean Scully and me right away. If you will be teaching at Loyola during the 2006-07 academic year, you may continue to use your office and other university property through the end of the academic year.”

August 26, 2006 The Loyola AAUP Chapter receives a copy of a letter sent to Wildes dated August 23, 2006. In the letter many questions are asked, including how can the administration proceed with a program discontinuation when SCAP has not recommended it, why have you not even made an effort to find other suitable positions in the university for the terminated faculty as the Handbook directs and why are you treating them like they've done something wrong?

August 25, 2006 Convocation for new Freshmen students is held. For the first time in the history of the convocation the university president is not present to welcome the new students.

August 23, 2006 Instead of meeting faculty face-to-face in a convocation, even though he has never allowed any questions about his remarks or the state of the university in any convocation he has held, Wildes sends an email.

August 22, 2006 Harris, Spence, Calzada, and Shuh meet for 2 hours and the discussion centered around a request made by the three faculty members who sought to have three administrators (Estes, Cornwell, B.Joyner) terminated. Details of the meeting will be presented by the three faculty members at the first College of HuNS Assembly on September 5, 2006.

August 21, 2006 A reception is held instead of the fall faculty convocation for the first time in any faculty member's memory -- at least 40 years.

August 18-25, 2006 Numerous stories about enrollment, effects of Katrina, etc., appear in local print and television news. The Presidents of all other New Orleans universities are spokesmen for their university in these articles. Loyola's president does not speak for Loyola.

August 18, 2006 Brother Alexis Gonzales, FSC, one of the faculty members terminated under the Pathways plan, dies at about 11:30pm.

August 18, 2006 Faculty terminated under the Pathways plan are ordered out of their offices by 4:45 when the locks will be changed. Those who had asked to keep their offices until they completed their appeals receive a letter from Wildes saying they do not need their offices in order to mount an effective appeal.

August 17, 2006 The Dean of HuNS requests a meeting between Harris, Thom Spence (Chemistry faculty), Maria Calzada (Math faculty), and Maureen Shuh (Biology faculty).

August 16, 2006 The AAUP Special Committee convenes in New Orleans to continue its investigation of the treatment of tenured faculty at Loyola, Tulane and UNO.

August 15, 2006 The URTC writes to Wildes requesting that all faculty members appealing their termination under the Pathways plan be allowed to stay in their offices until the appeal process is complete.

August 15, 2006 Dr. Mary McCay is appointed by the provost's Office to be Chair of the QEP committee.

August 15, 2006 Student Affairs plans to evacuate students on Category One Hurricanes.

August 12, 2006 The Loyola AAUP Chapter learns that Wildes has refused to meet with the national AAUP Special Committee. In a letter dated August 8, 2006, he says he may meet with them in the future if they will agree in advance what they will talk about.

August 9, 2006 Wildes cancels the Fall Convocation. Instead he will email a "state of the University" paper and will host two receptions.

August 8, 2006 The AAUP Special Committee interviews Loyola faculty members.

August 7, 2006 The AAUP Special Committee convenes in New Orleans to begin its investigation of the treatment of tenured faculty at Loyola, Tulane and UNO.

August 7, 2006 Some tenured faculty who are on the list for termination under the Pathways Plan receive email notification from Human Resources telling them to disregard the benefits separation information they received on August 4, 2006, because it was "mailed in error." Of course, the email includes an apology for any "inconvenience" that this incorrect notification may have caused.

August 4, 2006 Tenured faculty who are on the list for termination under the Pathways Plan receive a letter from Human Resources informing them that their benefits had been terminated as a result of their separation from the university, but they are eligible for COBRA.

August 2, 2006 Loyola sues its insurer Continental Casualty Co. in a class-action suit filed in federal court. So far Loyola has received only $4 mil on its claim.

Week of July 31, 2006 Department and College Websites start changing to reflect the Pathways administrative structure.

July 28, 2006 Dr. Mary Blue learns through her attorney that the administration has refused to allow her to stay in her office until her appeal is complete. She had argued and AAUP had pointed out that to make her leave before the appeal process is complete seems to presume that she will lose before the appeal has taken place. It also jeopardizes her ability to mount an effective appeal and could, in fact be prejudicial to her case. The Administration's position, according to their attorney, is that they want to treat all terminated faculty "consistently." Look at June 23 on this timeline and consider the "consistent" treatment so far.

July 24, 2006 Dr. Nancy Dupont comes to Loyola to review and critique the final projects of two students working on independent studies. She had made arrangements last week to have access to the broadcast facility specifically at 9am this morning to watch the video projects.  When no one is there to allow her in so she can critique her students, she cancels the appointment with one student.  She meets the other student at the student’s house, which had been flooded and is being repaired.  The only place to watch the tape is in the student’s bedroom while sitting on her bed.  Because Dr. Dupont can no longer be trusted alone in the broadcast facility and because the communications office staff did not meet her as promised, she grades a student project in the student’s bedroom.

July 22, 2006 Provost Walter Harris sends an email to faculty explaining to them that the “Pathways Restructuring Implementation Task Force” doesn’t have faculty members on it because they are, for the most part, working on “technical matters that go on behind-the-scene.”

July 21, 2006 Mr. Skelly McCay is appointed Interim Director of the University Honors Program by Dean Frank Scully of HuNS.

July 18, 2006 Provost Walter Harris sends a campus email informing the campus of the Sub-committees (a.k.a. workgroups) of Pathways Implementation Task Force are folded into one group:  Pathways Systems Implementation Team.  This is a different version of the Implementation Task Force which began meeting on May 16, 2006  (see May16 entry).

July 17, 2006 Dr. Ken Messa requests for a second time that he be allowed to remain in his office until his appeal is complete. Again, his request is ignored. He also notifies the provost of his intent to appeal and is told to contact the URTC about the appeal process.

July 17, 2006 The Pathways Systems Implementation Team is formed by appointment.  The names of the members of this team follow.  NO Faculty and NO students are members.

Bret Jacobs (chair)

Cindy Caire

Brenda Joyner           

Jay Calamia           

John Cornwell           

Marcia Petty

Jerry Dauterive           

Cathy Simoneaux

Donna Goforth           

Debbie Steiffel

Kathy Gros           

Judy Vogel

Angela Brocato Hoffer           

JoAnn Wellmeyer

July 17, 2006 Dean Frank Scully receives a contract to serve as Dean of the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences (HuNS).

July 2006 Service Learning appointment by Provost of Ms. Jan Moppert from College of Business to replace Carol Jeandron.  However, Ms. Moppert will have other duties (Internships and Loyola Corps) folded into Service Learning.

July 7, 2006 The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the controversy surrounding the Pathways Plan. In the article faculty express concerns on process and data accuracy. AAUP’sKurland is quoted as saying about the Administration’s actions “We've never seen anything like this," while Fr. Wildes says he is confident the University followed AAUP policy.  Provost Harris says that the time allotted for faculty review was “adequate.” He dismisses the vote of no confidence by saying “People got caught up in the heat of the moment.”  Fr. Wildes says he is not particularly bothered that the plan upset so many professors. He says he got few alternatives from the faculty (even though the article reports that SCAP suggested several revisions and cost-saving measures that were not incorporated in Pathways). On the interruption of business insurance, Fr. Wildes now estimates it at $5 million (recall that at the December 12, 2005 Senate meeting he reported it as $15 million). This article also includes opinions of some faculty that support the Administration; however, their statements do not include comments on whether the data was accurate or the process was fair.

July 6, 2006 John Murphy, Chair of the Faculty Senate, receives a reply from Father Wildes saying that conversations between the faculty and administration can occur, as long the Pathways Plan is not the topic.

July 3, 2006 Ms. Lisa Alexander of the Provost Office sends out an email saying that the Provost Office will not be holding a new faculty orientation this Fall semester. 

July 1, 2006 The Times-Picayune announces the appointment of Drs. Lorenz and Thomas in the interim administrative positions in their Education section.

June 30, 2006 Dr. George Capowich is appointed Chair of the Human Subjects Internal Review Board (IRB). Under the "Loyola University New Orleans Human Subjects Institutional Review Board Policy and Procedures... the Committee membership shall be consistent with 45 CFR 46 and it will be broadly representative of those academic disciplines in the university likely to use human subjects in research or teaching, or disciplines with ethical insights into issues involving the use of human subjects. The Human Subjects IRB will be sufficiently qualified through the maturity, experience and expertise of its members and diversity of its membership to ensure respect for its advice and council for safeguarding the rights and welfare of human subjects."  The IRB members currently consists of David Boileau, John Cornwell, Anthony Decuir, Patrick Hugg, George Capowich (Chair), Michelle Theriot, and Janet Ruscher (Tulane University).

June 30, 2006 Unofficially, Dr. Harris does not renew the contract of Dr. Lynn Koplitz in the position of Director of University Honors.  His reason is that he would prefer to see who else may be interested in the position.  Drs. Koplitz and Harris communicate via email regarding her position.

June 28, 2006 Drs. Kargol (Assistant Professor of Physics) and Martin McHugh (Associate Professor of Physics) meet with Provost Harris.  The Physics major remains suspended.   When asked to clarify what “suspended” means, Dr. Harris informs the physicists that he will let them know sometime at the beginning of the Fall semester.  Dr. Harris suggests that the Physics Department start participating in Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) activities.  Dr. Kargol reminded Dr. Harris that he [Dr. Kargol] has been an active participant in PKAL for Loyola.

June 26, 2006 Official announcement of Drs. Lorenz’s and Thomas’s appointments on the campus website.

June 26, 2006 Vicki McNeil, Associate Vice President, is terminated, classified as a reduction in force (RIF) termination.  She was informed of the loss of her position by Dr. David Estes, Interim Vice President of Student Affairs and Associate Provost.

June 26, 2006 Reported by New Orleans City Business on their website, dated June 9, 2006, that “The Louisiana Public Facilities Authority’s Board of Trustees has approved $45 million in bonds for a range of projects…” for Loyola University New Orleans.

June 23, 2006 Terminated professors receive new letters from Provost Walter Harris, changing the date that they must vacate their offices.  Request for appeals process by Drs. Blue and Messa were not acknowledged in the letters.  Dates and reasons vary from professor to professor:

Dr. Mary Blue – August 10, 2006 (due to two conferences that she is attending)

Dr. Nancy Dupont – July 31, 2006 (due to her teaching Spring II)

Dr. William Hammel – August 16, 2006 (because he will not return from London for Loyola Study Abroad with students until August 10, 2006)

Dr. Ken Messa – July 31, 2006 (due to his teaching Spring II)

June 22, 2006 Official announcement of Drs. Lorenz’s and Thomas’s appointments by campus email from Dr. Walter Harris, Provost.

June 21, 2006 A rumor that Concordia University in Austin, Texas, is being purchased by Loyola for $84 million.  The rumor is somewhat confirmed by Father Wildes in a private email in which he said that the rumors are not true since Loyola was out bidded.

June 21, 2006 John Murphy, Chair of the Faculty Senate, forwards the Senate document “Call for Conversation and Critique of Pathways” to Father Wildes and asks Father Wildes to forward copies to the Board members.

June 20, 2006AAUP’s Kurland writes another letter to Wildes.  He says, “Separating [faculty] involuntarily from their academic responsibilities, and especially doing so before a hearing on the discontinuance decision has been held and adequate grounds for it have been demonstrated, has been consistently viewed by our Association as a summary suspension inimical to academic due process.”  And he says, “In the threat to their reputations publicly and professionally, and in the denial of the exercise of their chief skills, the administration has injured the faculty.”  Finally he tells Wildes to reinstate Dr. Blue to her teaching responsibilities absent compelling reasons not to.

June 20, 2006 Mr. John Sears of Institutional Research and Dr. Gary Talarchek, Director of Grants and Research, are terminated.  Dr. Talarchek’s position is classified as a reduction in force termination; therefore, the position will not be re-filled.  Ms. Tootie Buisson, Assistant to the Director of Grants and Research, is informed that she will now report to Brenda Joyner, Assistant Provost.

June 16, 2006 Two appointments are confirmed but not made public:  Dr. Larry Lorenz of Communications is appointed the new interim Dean of the College of Social Sciences, and Dr. Robert Thomas of Environmental Communications Studies is confirmed to have been appointed the interim Director the new School of Mass Communications.  Both of these positions are new administrative positions, created as a result of the Pathways Plan.

June 15, 2006 Faculty members from terminated programs and departments receive a letter from Provost Harris telling them to vacate their offices and return keys, parking permits, library books, IDs and university credit cards by June 30, 2006.  Faculty members:  Messa, Czedjo, Blue, Dupont, Hammel, Chauvin, Dermody.

Note that Drs. Messa, Chauvin, and Dermody are in the middle of teaching Spring II and will not finish until mid-late July.  Dr. Hammel is taking a group of students abroad to London and must pay expenses with a university credit card.  His trip overlaps the date that he is required to vacate his office.

June 12, 2006 AAUP’s Kurland writes a strong letter to Wildes.  He says in part, “We have not as yet received word about the implementation of the plan and the issuance of notification to targeted individuals.  We urge that you refrain from going forward with the plan's impact on academic programs in the face of the strong faculty opposition that has been registered. We urge that no tenured Loyola faculty appointment be involuntarily terminated without demonstration of adequate grounds but merely on the basis of an administration-formulated plan that the governing board has approved.”

June 12, 2006 Dr. Blue is locked out of her laboratories in Communications – locks were changed without her knowledge and ordered changed by Sue Metzner of Human Resources whose supervisor is Rhonda Cartwright.  She was told she needed to be escorted in and out of the rooms.  She is still finishing up Spring II for which grades are due on June 18, 2006, for the first 5-week session.

June 8, 2006 John Murphy, Chair of the Faculty Senate, summarizes his lack of participation at the Board meeting on May 19.  The Faculty Senate is presented a document outlining the Administration’s actions against the faculty.  Three members (Gerlich, Smith, Hansen) of the Senate volunteer to re-work the document.

June 1-present, 2006 Dr. John Cornwell, Assistant Provost for Assessment, begins to telephone specific faculty members to discuss implementation procedures to “move forward” on the Pathways Plan.  The usual route of Provost discussion with the Dean who would contact the chair of a department is bypassed.

May 19, 2006 President presents to the Board and amended Pathways plan with only minor corrections.  The Board approves the Pathways plan. The new plan is presented to the Loyola community after its final Board approval.  The Faculty Senate, SCAP, and SGA were not informed of and were not shown the revised Pathways Plan until Board Approval on this date.

The chair of the Faculty Senate, the SGA President and Vice President were not allowed inside the Executive Session; however, all supporting administrators attended the session.

May 16, 2006 Pathways Plan Implementation Task Force is appointed and meets.  No faculty and no students are members of the committees.  (Note that this is before Board approval.)

Pathways Implementation Task Sub-Committees (chairs in parentheses):

1. Pathways Marketing and Communications (Debbie Steiffel) – Vickie Frank, Vicki McNeil, Renny Simno, Angie Brocato, Melissa Landry, Donna Goforth, Lori Zawistowski, Michael Rachal.

2. Pathways Student Records Committee (Kathy Gros) – Michael Rachal, Cindy Caire, Tony Decuir, Jerry Dauterive, Laurie Joyner, Andy Piacun, Father Larry Moore, Angie Brocato, Melissa Landry, Judy Vogel, Angel Turner.

3. Pathways Financial Committee (Jay Calamia, 6/15/06 met) – Ed Kvet, Cindy Caire, Laurie Joyner, Debbie Zimmerman, Judy Vogel, Joanne Wellmeyer, Don Zimmerman, Kathy Gros.

4. Pathways Financial Aid & Tuition Pricing Committee (Cathy Simoneaux) --  Tony Decuir, Debbie Steiffel, Kathy Gros, Andy Piacun, Judy Vogel, jerry Dauterive, Bob Farrell, Joanne Wellmeyer, Melissa Landry.

5. Pathways Institutional Effectiveness Committee (John Cornwell) – John Sears, Laurie Joyner, Jay Calamia, Rhonda Cartwright, Angie Brocato, Brenda Joyner.

6. Pathways Systems Committee (Bret Jacobs) – Michael Rachal, Kathy Gros, Chris Cameron, Keith Grambling, Judy Vogel, Claudia Aguirre, Jay Calamia, John Sears, Don Zimmerman, Robert Reed, JoAnne Wellmeyer, Donna Bougeois.

May 12, 2006 Arts and Sciences faculty meet and vote no confidence on the Provost, the Associate Provosts and a Special Aid to the President by a margin of 71-2.

May 11, 2006 Senate meets and takes a “straw” vote of no confidence in the Provost’s office. The vote passes unanimously with two abstentions.

May 10, 2006 Kurland again writes to Wildes to announce the composition of the special committee.  He said, “we shall appreciate having the comments we invited on the concerns expressed in my letter of April 14” and again asked for his cooperation.

May 9 and 10, 2006 SCAP meets again to make further recommendations on Pathways and express concerns on data accuracy and on the rationale for the plan.  The Provost refuses to attend the meetings since he said he believes SCAP’s work is done.  The meetings are chaired by the SCAP co-chair and a quorum is present.

May 5, 2006 Father Si Hendry, Director of the Jesuit Center, is informed by Wildes that his contract will not be renewed for next year due to “us as having different approaches to developing the Jesuit mission of the university, different visions of the role of the Jesuit Center, and different styles.”  Father Hendry is required to vacate his office and residence by July 31, 2006.

April 21, 2006Kurland writes to Wildes to report that a special committee of the AAUP is being formulated to inquire into and report on Association concerns at the various universities in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  He asks Wildes for his cooperation.

April 21, 2006 The Senate Executive Committee meets with a Board subcommittee and express serious concerns about Pathways, its rationale and vision and the supporting data.

April 20, 2006 The Senate meets.  The subcommittee studying the “Program Review Criteria” reports that data posted is not enough to evaluate Pathways using the “Program Review Criteria.”  They could find data that supported only parts of two of the nine supposed criteria. The subcommittee requests additional data to support the criteria.  The requested data has never come before the Senate. The SCAP report is presented to the Senate.  The UPT concerns are presented to the Senate.  The Senate votes unanimously to accept these reports. The Senate votes unanimously with two abtentions that it has NO CONFIDENCE IN THE PROCESS of creating the Pathways Plan

April 19, 2006 UPT meets.  The SCAP report is presented to UPT.  UPT expresses concerns about the plan and the SCAP report.  The data used is reported incomplete and flawed.

April 18, 2006 SCAP unanimously approves the subcommittee recommendations and expresses the need to meet again to provide more input to the President and the Board.

April 14, 2006 AAUP writes to Wildes to make its initial comment on the Pathways Plan.  Kurland reminds Wildes of the policies of AAUP that are tracked in the Loyola Faculty Handbook.  He welcomes Wildes’ comments. 

April 13-14-15, 2006 (Easter Break) The SCAP subcommittee meets.  Using incomplete and later found to be incorrect data and information; the subcommittee crafts a response to Pathways with four substantial changes.  The “Program Review Criteria” are not applied because the data provided are insufficient and the committee wasn’t given enough time.

April 13, 2006 (Easter Break) The Senate subcommittee meets. Prior to the meeting subcommittee chair Dee Harper had drawn up a matrix showing where and how the data supported the criteria.  The subcommittee found that the data only supported 9 of the 30 indicators of the criteria and that the data did not address all of the criteria.  The subcommittee concluded that without adequate and complete data, there would be no way to make any recommendations on the Pathways plan.  The committee writes a report asking for complete data so the Senate can make informed recommendations.

April 11, 2006 Harris asks SCAP to form a subcommittee to look at Pathways and give a recommendation to the full council.  The subcommittee is charged to come back with a report in one week.  The subcommittee is told that if it recommends reinstating a program proposed for termination that it has to come up with offsetting dollars.  Subcommittee members ask for the cost savings associated with each program proposed for termination so they can do this properly.  Harris agrees to provide that information.  The subcommittee never receives it.

April 11, 2006 Town Hall meeting with President Wildes and Provost Harris and campus community.

April 10-19, 2006 Responses to Pathways Plan are posted via a special blog site.

April 10, 2006 Original Pathways Plan is posted online. 

April 7, 2006 Data to be used in program review process is posted on the Provost website.

April 6, 2006 The “Program Review Criteria” document is presented to the Senate. Several senators speak to the concern that they are being asked to approve criteria that have already been applied. The Senate forms a subcommittee to examine the SCAP criteria as they relate to the data that had not yet been provided in order to make recommendations regarding Pathways.  This data would not be posted to the Provost's web page until April 7. The meeting ends with no consensus or approval of the criteria.

March 28, 2006 SCAP votes to send the “Program Review Criteria” to the Faculty Senate for approval and/or modification.  Many changes are suggested that never appear in the criteria. The meeting ends with no consensus or approval of the criteria.

March 21, 2006 SCAP is asked to comment on the “Program Review Criteria” that had been referenced in an email from the President and posted on the Provost’s web page.  Dr. Blue points out that this document is entirely different from the earlier “Criteria for Program Mix Decisions.” Harris responds that the new document is just a modified version of the older document.  Several committee members bring copies of their written comments for discussion.  Harris asks for consensus on the criteria.  Committee members refuse to agree since the criteria had not been approved or even discussed by the Senate and most express the opinion that the criteria need to be weighted.  The meeting ends with no consensus or approval of the criteria.

March 20, 2006 Kurland writes to Wildes thanking him for his call and stating, “I look forward to seeing the draft of the plan once it is ready to share with us.”  The AAUP will not hear from Fr. Wildes again until June 26, 2006.

March 17, 2006 AAUP Associate General Secretary Jordan Kurland calls Dr. Blue to tell her that Fr. Wildes had called the AAUP to ask them to consult with him on his plans for Loyola and its faculty. 

March 17, 2006 By email, Fr. Wildes announces the program review to reduce expenditures to match “anticipated reduced net tuition revenues for the next several years.” In this email he mentions preliminary criteria used in January by the deans for intra-college analysis of program and refined criteria that the Provost will distribute to SCAP for consensus. Wildes also announces that he has asked Walter Harris to lead this program review.  He states that Provost Harris will post “all the data that will be used to guide decision-making” on a specified website in the month of April. In this letter, Wildes also mentions the work of the President’s Planning Task Force.

March 16, 2006 By email, Fr. Wildes reports that the “Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) on-site committee has finished its work and provided us with an oral report this morning.” The committee reported that Loyola was in full compliance with the eighty principles of accreditation and that our QEP, "Thinking Critically, Acting Justly" was accepted with no recommendations for changes.

March 7, 2006 At the SCAP meeting, Harris admits when asked that Deans are already using the criteria to evaluate programs the committee is supposedly considering.  He said he has asked SCAP members for written comments on the criteria at every meeting since they were distributed and has thus far received only one set of written comments. (Note: because of Mardi Gras, there was only one meeting between the distribution of the criteria and this meeting.)   Dr. Calzada points out that SCAP is supposed to be considering criteria that come from the Senate.  Harris responds that these criteria are not expressly to eliminate programs, but simply to review programs.  Dr. Blue expresses concern that the criteria seem to be equally weighted.  Committee members ask for an electronic version of the criteria so they can easily share them with those who have elected them to this committee.  They are told there is no electronic version. 

February 28, 2006 AAUP Associate General Secretary Jordan Kurland contacts Dr. Mary Blue, President of the Loyola AAUP Chapter to assess the status of the faculty and shared governance at Loyola post-Katrina.  Dr. Blue tells him what has happened up to that point.  She says faculty members are sure something is about to happen, but no faculty members know what or when.  He writes a letter that afternoon asking her to let him know “promptly about anything put into writing about program discontinuances and layoffs.”

February 9, 2006 Drs. Scariano and Joyner report on the first meeting of the Presidential Task Force, whose purpose is advising the president and the board in developing a strategic blueprint, working from the draft that had emerged from the Academic Affairs Strategic Agenda, in order to move forward in the realities of a post-Katrina Loyola. Dr. Scariano expresses concerns on the confidentiality Wildes requires for the Task Force. After pressing from the Senate floor, Fr. Wildes agrees to admit Dr. Blue onto the Task Force. The Presidential Task Force would only meet four times throughout the Spring semester even though Wildes had stated that they would probably be meeting several times a week.  The Task Force would discuss general and vague statements that would eventually be incorporated into the “five-year-plan” part of Pathways. They did not consider program cuts or suspensions. No specific academic program was ever discussed.

February 6, 2006 A&S Dean Frank Scully writes to Harris informing him that he is “reluctantly submitting the materials you requested of deans: the A&S Program Matrix and the Ranking of Programs.”  He says he discussed the Matrix and the ranking with both the A&S College Planning Team and the A&S Council of Chairs.  He reports, “Both groups unanimously recommended that I not submit these because they do not know how they will be used.”  He concludes by telling Harris, “I am ready to support you in this difficult process as best I can, but, if decisions are not made in the light of day, administrators will lose faculty confidence and this is not something we can afford to squander in these difficult times.”

January 31, 2006 At the meeting of the Standing Council for Academic Planning (SCAP) Harris distributes a document called “Criteria for Program Mix Decisions.”  He asks committee members to review the criteria and to send him any other parameters that should be considered.  Harris’ responses to questions from the faculty committee members on the intended purpose for the document are vague.  Since regular program reviews are part of the specific duties of SCAP, few questions are asked.

January 12, 2006 The University Senate discusses the proposed Spring II session, including the fact that there is no planned compensation for faculty.  Dr. Scariano asks, “Will we be required to teach?” Provost Harris responds “We will rely on the good graces of the faculty to teach.” At this meeting the Senate has been asked to elect two faculty members to participate in the President’s Task Force.  Fr. Wildes has decided not to use UPT or SCAP.  The vote is deadlocked between Drs. Scariano, Blue, and Joyner. The Senate chair agrees to give the names of the three candidates to the President with the understanding that all three would be placed on the Task Force.

January 9, 2006 Classes begin for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.  92% of the students have returned.  There is a very positive attitude among faculty and students.  Most had to overcome many obstacles in order to return.  Most who returned said they felt they were engaged in a task of historic proportions.  All seem wounded but believe they are up to the work ahead.  Ordinary faculty members are assigned to teach the maximum course load allowed by the Faculty Handbook.  However, extraordinary faculty members – who have contracts but whose classes are capped with zero students – are paid NOT to teach.

December 12, 2005 The University Senate meets with Wildes and Harris.  A transcript of the meeting is posted on the Senate Web Page.  Pleas from the faculty for more information and a role in the decision-making process are met with promises from the administration that they will improve in those areas.  Wildes projects that no more than 75% of the students will return for the spring semester. He also states that “We have coverage for $15 million in business interruption insurance.” When confronted with the fact that extraordinary faculty courses for the Spring semester were capped at zero and therefore their contracts would de facto be voided, Dr. Harris stated “The only answer I can give is that our office certainly does not assign course loads for faculty. Those decisions are made in the colleges and we respect those decisions that come forward from the colleges.” In reply, Dean Joyner asked “…because I am the person who actually does that at the college, are you saying that we should open all sections for extraordinary people…?”.  Harris replied, “No, I’m not saying that.” Also at this meeting the president was asked to use the traditional governance structures of UPT or SCAP for future planning since they include elected faculty representatives. He agreed to consider it.  At one point Wildes notes, “I will never live through this again.  If it happens again, I will bring an end to my own life and take my chances with God.”

December 6, 2005 By email, Fr. Wildes announces that in the face of shortfalls in revenue, it is his responsibility to take steps that will keep the University fiscally healthy so that we can achieve the promise of our future. He says he is working with the Vice Presidents to achieve a 15% reduction in the salary budget and a 20% reduction in the operating budget of the University. He said these reductions would be made this week.  Twelve administrative assistants and two untenured faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences are fired the next day.

November 29, 2005 By email Dr. Mary Blue places the “Faculty Interests and Concerns” document before the faculty.  It is the work of the faculty group who began working on November 7.  The document presents concerns, asks questions of administrators and concludes with a statement on shared governance.  The group had unanimously endorsed the document, and asked for a University Senate meeting to be held on December 8.  They further asked that the document be on the agenda and that the President and Provost attend the meeting to answer the questions presented in it.

November 13, 2005 By email the Quality Enhancement Plan committee is informed that the Deans have worked on the plan during the evacuation and the new document is enclosed for the committee’s review.  Fr. Si Hendry writes an exhaustive response to the changed document.  The committee begins meeting to finish its work.

November 11, 2005 Faculty and students had been told that registration for the Spring 2006 semester would begin on November 28.  By email Harris announces it will begin on November 15 instead.

November 10, 2005 AAUP President Mary Blue and Vice President Lydia Voigt and University Senate Chair John Murphy and Vice Chair Marcus Kondkar met with Dr. Harris and Fr. Wildes. Their primary message was to convey the overwhelming willingness of the faculty to help in whatever way possible. In what turned out to be a relatively pleasant conversation, the faculty representatives shared some concerns regarding the lack of faculty voice and the need for more intense and transparent communication; the necessity of having greater visibility of our university in the community, in national organizations, and in the media; and the need for the organization of service opportunities for our students and our faculty in the revitalization efforts of the City.

November 7, 2005 Dr. Mary Blue begins holding meetings of the Loyola AAUP Chapter and any interested faculty members.   The group agrees to meet every Monday morning to work on a collective statement of faculty concerns to present to the administration.

October 28, 2005 By email, Dr. Mary Blue, Associate Professor of Communications, asks Father Wildes and Dr. Harris to discuss academic decisions made by the university without seeking the input of the faculty.  The decisions include teaching 4 courses in Spring 2006, 4 courses in an extra semester (this is now known as Spring II), not including issues of faculty commitments during the summer (study abroad was specifically mentioned), courses being offered without consultation of faculty and students, and not considering the housing difficulties of the university community.

October 21, 2005 Dean Frank Scully holds a meeting of the College of Arts and Sciences.  Because the meeting was not called at least five days in advance as the protocol requires, it is not an official College Assembly and it is agreed that no votes would be taken. Scully informs those assembled that the administration has decided to condense the spring semester and offer a combination of seven and 14 week sessions as well as a second special session that would replace the fall semester. He said all ordinary faculty members would be expected to teach in this special session to make up for being paid during the fall semester even though no classes were offered.  He said all released time, sabbatical leaves, study abroad programs and professional travel money are canceled.  He said no adjunct faculty or part time faculty will be retained for the spring semester and ordinary faculty will be expected to teach the maximum allowed by the Faculty Handbook.  Although many faculty pointed out that adjunct faculty contracts are for a year and do not have contingency clauses, he insists they will be released.  Faculty members express deep concern that academic decisions are being made without consultation with the faculty.  Many also express concern that administrators are requiring teaching beyond the written contract period without additional salary.

September – November 2005 Evacuated faculty and students meet in cities all across the United States such as Boston, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Spokane and Baton Rouge.  Many faculty members run up large personal telephone bills keeping in contact with students and each other.

September 4, 2005 Loyola University New Orleans is officially closed indefinitely.

August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina makes landfall.