SU: Layoff letters a mistake

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jan 10, 2009 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Miscommunication combined with some wrongly mailed termination letters led to fears that nearly 100 Southern University faculty members were being laid off because of state budget cuts.

But those fears were at least partly allayed Friday when Chancellor Kofi Lomotey assured faculty protesters that no more than 10 temporary faculty members — whose contracts ended after December — were losing their jobs.

That is because Gov. Bobby Jindal lessened the amount of higher education cuts last week, Lomotey said.

The decision left Southern with $2 million in mid-academic year cuts instead of $4 million, said Lomotey, whose contract was finally approved Friday to run through the end of 2010 after months of disagreements.

“Rather than under-notified, we over-notified,” Lomotey explained apologetically as to why termination letters were hurriedly sent out to too many employees, including a handful of tenured faculty.

Those letters were sent out when Southern officials thought they were being cut by $4 million, he said.

Still, Lomotey warned layoffs could be necessary after the spring semester if budget cuts increase.

“The letters did go out. The chancellor acknowledged it,” said Tony Clayton, new Southern Board of Supervisors chairman.

“We’ve combed through that budget with a fine-toothed comb to keep people from losing their jobs,” Clayton said.

But such explanations did little to satisfy several Southern faculty members.

“One-hundred letters received on Christmas Eve,” said past Faculty Senate President Eva Baham. “How cruel is that, saying don’t come back after Jan. 1.

“You’re protecting people high up making $250,000 a year and you’re going to fire people making $20,000,” Baham said, chiding Lomotey and Southern University System President Ralph Slaughter.

“From my point of view, the matter has not been resolved,” added Tom Miller, a foreign language professor. “It’s an issue of communication.”