Before the University Law School’s cease-and-desist order was reversed, faculty representatives said they were willing to lift the University-wide order and start talking tenure with the Board of Regents.
During a press conference Wednesday, members of the University Faculty Alliance and the American Association of University Professors announced that they sent a letter to the regents telling them that they wanted to discuss tenure compromises and work to lift the order.
The letter stated that a negotiating group should include representatives from every college in the University as well as Faculty Consultative Committee members and representatives from the professors association and the faculty alliance.
However, if the proposed group could reach an agreement with the regents, any new tenure plan would have to go through a University-wide faculty vote.
But with the latest order from the Bureau of Mediation services that the Law School does not have enough signature cards to warrant a cease-and-desist order, and Reagan’s announcement that the regents will likely pass a tenure revision proposal for the Law School, the regents might now ignore the letter.
Regents Chairman Tom Reagan said he looked at the letter but did not wish to respond on it until he talked about it with the other regents.
V. Rama Murthy, who is president of the American Association of University Professors-Twin Cities chapter, said he hopes the regents will still consider the letter’s suggestions for the rest of the University.
“It would be a big hurdle for the regents to take what they do with the Law School and apply it to the rest of the University,” he said. “We hope that instead they deal with our suggestion which would make the tenure issue open and make the decisions more democratic.”
— Jim Martyka