Texas school under investigation

A leading American faculty organization is formally investigating the mass termination of tenured and tenure-track professors on grounds of financial exigency made by the University of Texas System and its Medical Branch in Galveston in the wake of Hurricane Ike. These layoffs "raise key issues of academic freedom, tenure, and due process," the linkurl:American Association of University Professors;http://www.aaup.org/ (AAUP) wrote in a linkurl:letter;http://txfacassn.typepad.com/files/combest-cigarroa-callender-investigation-090512.pdf last month to UT chancellor linkurl:Francisco Cigarroa;http://www.utsystem.edu/cha/biography.htm and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) president linkurl:David Callender,;http://www.utmb.edu/president/ announcing the formation of a committee that will conduct a full inquiry into the dismissals. "Without addressing our concerns and without any appropriate changes... it went to the point where the [AAUP] general secretary authorized the creation of an ad hoc committee to look into this matter more closely," linkurl:Eric Combest,;http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/asc/comares/contact.htm an AAUP associate secretary in the department on academic freedom, tenure, and governance, told __The Scientist__. "We stand...