The American Association of University Professors will investigate charges by a dozen former Essex Community College faculty and staff members that they were illegally fired or denied the traditional security of tenure.
But when the AAUP team arrives Oct. 14 at the eastern Baltimore County campus, it shouldn't expect red carpet treatment. In fact, it might not even make it to the office of President Donald J. Slowinski.
"The AAUP doesn't even have a chapter on campus," Dr. Slowinski said. "I can't assure them access to my office, and they certainly have no right to access our records. There is current legal action against Essex Community College, and I choose not to tell them a thing."
"This could disgrace the college nationwide, if AAUP censures Essex," said Edward G. Sherin, one of the professors fired after his program was eliminated. "And, if this doesn't break tenure on campus, it will surely bend it."
Proponents of tenure, a time-honored job-security status granted after a probationary period, say it assures academic freedom without political interference and guarantees stable long-range planning and programs.
However, tenure is not protection against incompetence, misconduct or the closing of a program. The AAUP long has believed that some institutions try to fire a professor with whom they disagree simply by closing a program. In such a case, the burden of proof is on the institution to demonstrate that the program is without merit or no longer draws students.
R. Robert Kreiser, associate secretary of AAUP, which claims a nationwide membership of 42,000, said "it is not unusual for administrations to cite litigation as a reason for not cooperating. These are academic issues, not legal issues, and I hope Dr. Slowinski reconsiders."
Edwin A. Hirschmann, a Towson State University history professor and president of the Maryland AAUP Conference, said things aren't what they seem at the once-sleepy Essex campus, where enrollment now reaches 10,000 and administrators have to work with an ever-shrinking education dollar.
"My understanding is they had a reorganization and fired 10 or 12 tenured members of the teaching staff and replaced most of them with part-timers," Dr. Hirschmann said. "We are very much concerned that a college financed by the taxpayers of Maryland and the county has treated faculty in such a cavalier and unprofessional manner."
Most of the Essex cases into which AAUP is looking occurred in 1993.
At least four professors who were terminated have filed suits or initiated other legal action to reclaim their former positions. Two will be in Baltimore County Circuit Court tomorrow seeking reinstatement and restoration of full tenure and contracts.
Jane Adams and Gwen Nicholson, each of whom has taught more than 20 years each at Essex, claim that the administration fired them despite clauses in their contracts prohibiting termination related to downsizing or elimination of programs.
Barry Steelman, an attorney representing the two professors, would not comment on the action.
For his part, Dr. Slowinski said his college lost more than $4 million in state funding between 1991 and 1993.
The annual budget dwindled from $30 million to $26 million "and we had to take some painful steps."
He said that meant dropping courses in mass communications, office technology, hotel and restaurant management, electronics, health information, food technology and travel and tourism. The professors in those courses were informed their contracts would not be renewed.
Maryland has 18 community colleges. State 1994 fiscal year figures show that the community colleges operate on a $124,913,000 budget, while the four-year institutions in the University of Maryland system have a $522,934,000 budget.
"While the community colleges in Maryland have 57 percent of all the students in higher education, we only receive 17 percent of the state dollar," Dr. Slowinski said. "This episode here at Essex marks the reality of higher education in the '90s. This controversy will either be a catalyst for unionization of faculty on campus or things will die down and people will accept the shared governance of the faculty, administration and the board of trustees."
Opponents of Dr. Slowinski contend that he and the board of trustees ran roughshod over individual rights, such as due process, during their appeals and ignored the human side of their cases.
"When things started to change, it was frighteningly bizarre," said Vivian Martin, a writer who worked for the college cable television channel and left last year on her own.
"Basically, it was the leadership," Ms. Martin said. "One division head couldn't write an English sentence. Another had speakers installed on our desks where he could listen to our conversations. This same man, a leader, believed that space aliens met every seven years with U.S. Navy propulsion experts in Germany's Black Forest. I left that mess and am I glad that I did. Morale was suffering; the place went down."
Mr. Sherin, who received national and state awards for his hotel and restaurant management course before he was fired last year, said the Essex administration and the board "acted in an unethical and irresponsible manner by terminating the contracts tenured faculty."
"All the affected faculty taught in occupational programs and were highly active in their professions and respected in the community," he said. "The board and college denied us due process and open hearings and thus denied one of the guaranteed traditions in our society."
Nelson P. Guild, president at Frostburg State University for 16 years and former executive director of the now-defunct board of trustees of Maryland's universities and colleges, is one who believes faculty tenure has outlived its value.
"The general pattern of workload at major universities involves a lot less contact with full professors because they are busy publishing their way into other advancement or fame and fortune," Dr. Guild said.
And officials of Essex and members of the board of trustees for Essex, Dundalk and Catonsville community colleges make no secret about their wish to abolish or limit tenure.
"We could eventually do away with tenure," said Nancy M. Hubers, board member and former chairwoman. "Tenure is something left over from the old English system."
Robert J. Kemmery, current board chairman, said he favors partial abolition of tenure and rolling three-year contracts for faculty members. "Education has become a business," Mr. Kemmery said. "There is this notion, 'Once I have tenure, this job is mine forever.' Well, eliminating the programs was very painful and the human price was troubling. But we had to look at producing more associate of arts degrees and had to weigh the service to our clients."
"The fact is tenure is a volatile, emotional issue," he said. "There would be such an upheaval. . . . I'm not certain I want to waste all that political capital fighting that war."
James McGrath, former chairman of the Division of Business and Management at Essex, was demoted in 1991 to professor. Dr. McGrath will go to court in November on a lawsuit charging breach of contract, said David Dowell, his attorney.
"The college had a dismal record hiring minorities and I thought the administration should remedy that situation," Dr. McGrath said. "We had only four African-Americans on the entire teaching faculty in 1991.
"When I told the dean of instruction . . . that I wanted to hire a black as the new computer instructor, I was told in the next breath that I was going to be demoted."
Terry Hirsch, acting director of institutional studies and analysis, said seven blacks and five Asians are on the 176-member full-time faculty. "The college does make a great effort to recruit talented minority members, but we do not wind up with qualified candidates," she said.
No minorities are among the dozen staff and faculty members fired.
"Many people at this college have given their lives to the students and now they are being treated like excess baggage," Dr. McGrath said.