In its letter of Monday, March 30, to Chancellor Steve Ballard, the East Carolina University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (ECU-AAUP) communicated its dissent from stated university policies that would result in the elimination of 147 faculty and staff positions at the University. According to the ECU-AAUP, the impact of ECU's planned layoffs would be to raise measurably the unemployment levels in Pitt County, calling into question the university's commitment to its newly-adopted mission statement: to serve as a national model for public service and economic transformation in Eastern North Carolina, where all but three of North Carolina's high-poverty counties are located.
On March 20, the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina released its "Value Statement", calling on every UNC campus to "Protect UNC's commitment to teaching, research and public service ... with academic instruction taking highest priority." Yet earlier in March, the ECU Board of Trustees approved a "Policy Framework" that gives some priority to the academic core "but never with the expectation that it can be fully protected," while simultaneously calling for the protection of its other strategic priorities. Chancellor Ballard's response to the ECU-AAUP letter stated, "Academic programs are the last of nine priorities."
The ECU Faculty Senate officers endorsed the ECU-AAUP statement at the March 31 Faculty Senate meeting, and planned for an open faculty meeting Monday, April 6, to discuss university policies.
