BATON ROUGE, La. – Southern University “likely” will ask to declare a financial emergency next week unless nearly the entire faculty agrees to furloughs and shorter termination notices.
Southern’s new chancellor, James Llorens, told The Advocate of Baton Rouge on Wednesday that the budget shortfall proved larger than expected and that greater demands are being asked of the faculty. But some of faculty members are balking at the requests, essentially creating a standoff with Southern’s administration.
Declaring a financial emergency, called exigency, allows the administration more leeway to lay off tenured faculty and axe academic programs. Exigency is generally considered a serious blemish that could scare away current and potential employees.
Southern faculty is receiving “voluntary furlough and program discontinuance” agreements to sign. The wording includes furloughs equaling 10 percent of their annual pay across-the-board for all Southern employees.
The agreement does not guarantee that exigency, which would allow the university to force furloughs, will not be declared.
Llorens said that, unless 95 to 100 percent of the faculty sign the agreement voluntarily, university administrators would have no option but to call exigency.
“I understand this is a difficult situation. It’s nothing we go into lightly,” Llorens said.
