State Board Clears Way for Faculty Cuts at U. of Northern Iowa

Plans to eliminate academic programs at the University of Northern Iowa have moved ahead with the state Board of Regents’ overwhelming approval on Monday of a severance plan for professors who lose their jobs, the Associated Press reports. According to the wire service, the severance plan offers tenured professors whose programs end up being eliminated a year of salary plus other benefits if they agree to give up employment at the institution. Northern Iowa faculty members on Friday responded to the university’s yet-unspecified plans by voting no confidence in its president, Benjamin J. Allen, and its provost, Gloria Gibson. The American Association of University Professors has sent President Allen a letter protesting the lack of “any meaningful faculty involvement” in the university’s development of its plan to cut costs.