“Maupin received vote of no confidence from Meharry Faculty
Senate in 2003.”
According to the Tennessee Conference of the American
Association of University Professors (AAUP): “One June 4th, [2003] the Faculty
Senate voted no confidence in President John Maupin by a margin of 45 to 5 with
15 abstentions. The vote came after 13 professors were terminated and a number
of others found their contracts restructured with substantial reductions in salaries.”
An investigating committee of the AAUP later accused Maupin
of effectively eliminating the tenure system at Meharry Medical College during
his presidency at that school. There were also allegations that he used
intimidation tactics to pressure faculty members into publicly supporting that
overhaul.
Logan Delany, who formerly served as the chairman of the St.
Augustine's University Board of Trustees, said he resigned from that position
shortly after Boardley-Suber dissolved the institution’s faculty senate.
Maupin and Boardley-Suber did not make those anti-faculty
decisions to help their respective schools become stronger. They took those
actions to weaken key parts of the system of internal accountability (e.g.: due
process and shared governance) so they could then push professors around much like immature K-12 bullies.
FAMU doesn’t need an insecure, power-desperate president who
thinks faculty members should be treated like “The Help.” It needs a leader who
understands and respects the central role that professors play at a research
university.
Maupin and Boardley-Suber weren’t up to that task.