To the Faculty and Librarians:
We have recently learned of quite a few faculty members in departments across campus
who were denied leaves without pay -- and some who are being fired or forced to resign
for taking such a leave – even after their department and college approved the leave.
We believe this is a violation of the Red Book policy (referenced in our contract), which
allows unpaid leaves – but the administration disagrees. Below is an open letter asking
the administration to stop all denials and termination proceedings until the MSP and the
Faculty Senate can work out a better solution.
Please send a reply email with your name and department if you are willing to sign
onto this letter. We are collecting signatures for the next few days only, and then we
will forward this to the administration and possibly the media. It’s very important that
the administration know that faculty are united around this issue – so we will not release
the names until we have more than 50 faculty signed onto the letter.
Thanks for your help –
Max Page
President, MSP
_______________________________________
August 2007
An Open Letter from UMass Faculty and Librarians
To Provost Seymour and President Wilson:
Over the last year, a number of faculty members have been forced to resign, and
termination proceedings have been initiated against others, who simply requested a leave
without pay when they were invited to teach or do research at another university. Many
of these faculty members needed a leave of absence in order to make arrangements for
family members or to deal with serious health issues. Apparently a new policy has been
instituted unilaterally – without notification or approval by the Faculty Senate or the MSP
– to deny such leave requests. In each case that has come to our attention, the individual
has the full support of her/his department and dean, and the leave would not
inconvenience the department or the college. Nearly all major research universities allow
faculty leave without pay under these circumstances.
This new policy has several detrimental effects:

Excellent faculty are leaving UMass Amherst. These are some of the
best, most productive scholars and researchers, and outstanding teachers in
their departments. At a time when UMass is claiming to increase the
faculty, distinguished faculty are being forced out.

A large number of the faculty who have been denied leaves in the past
two years are women and people of color. UMass’s commitment to
diversity is called into question.

This administration plays favorites. Some faculty have been granted a
year’s leave, or two years’ leave, while others have been denied.
Decisions are arbitrary and capricious.

The administration is hurting students. When their dissertation or thesis
advisor leaves as a result of not being allowed to take a leave of absence,
students who are completing years of work are forced to find new advisors
who have standing at UMass, or must leave the university.

The policy is anti-family. Most of the faculty involved have to deal with
family issues – resolve dual-career situations, accompany spouses who
must relocate, or face complicated health issues. The university is
advertising itself as a family-friendly campus, while sending threatening
letters to faculty who request some flexibility for family reasons.
These recent decisions look terrible for the University at a time when we can scarcely
afford more negative publicity. We are asking the provost to reverse recent decisions
denying leave without pay to faculty, and to halt all denials and termination proceedings
until the issues can be studied further. The administration should work with the Faculty
Senate and the MSP to achieve a better solution.