The American Association of University Professors has weighed in on a conflict over faculty governance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The rift, between RPI’s faculty and administration, has widened since early August, when the university’s provost, Robert Palazzo, suspended the university’s Faculty Senate, citing concerns that the Senate had failed to amend its constitution following a directive from the university’s Board of Trustees.

Mr. Palazzo then declared a “state of transitional faculty governance” while the university appointed a committee to conduct a faculty-governance review.

In response, the AAUP sent a stern letter to the university’s president, Shirley Ann Jackson, and to the chair of its Board of Trustees, questioning the motive for the suspension and calling on RPI to restore the Faculty Senate.

“We are not aware that the institute or any part of it faces problems so grave as to warrant the highly unusual actions that the board and administration have taken,” says the letter, dated September 20. “We do not see how the administration’s actions to suspend the Faculty Senate and arrogate its key responsibilities to the administration can be reconciled with the principles of shared governance.” The letter also expresses concern that the provost’s proposed faculty-governance review “is intended primarily to be a vehicle to speed the adoption of board directives.”

At Rensselaer, meanwhile, the provost has appointed an 11-member faculty committee to conduct the proposed review of faculty governance.

The announcement preceded a two-day all-faculty vote at Rensselaer — which begins today — on a referendum calling for the provost to reinstate the Senate and affirm the legitimacy of its elections. —Paula Wasley