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December 02, 2008, 11:43 AM ET
Faculty Layoffs at Galveston Medical School Spark Complaints
Tenured professors are among the 127 faculty members being laid off by the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, The Daily News, a local newspaper, reports. In all, the medical school laid off more than 3,000 people, most of whom are staff members of the teaching hospital.
The Texas Faculty Association has protested the layoffs, which it says include the current and former presidents of the medical school’s faculty senate. The association says tenured and tenure-track faculty members were cut at twice the rate of nontenured faculty members.
The faculty group outlined its complaints in a blog posting. The faculty members receiving pink slips, effective at the end of the academic year, include well-known surgeons, experts in molecular medicine, and researchers who study infectious diseases, the Galveston newspaper reports. It received the list after submitting a request through the Texas Public Information Act.
Texas health-care experts are also concerned about the impact that the drastic reduction in the medical school’s teaching hospital will have on the care of indigent and uninsured patients, the Associated Press reports. The hospital is being scaled back from 550 to 200 beds because of the widespread destruction Ike caused when it slammed into the Gulf Coast in September.
Categories: Faculty-hiring
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