GALVESTON — Hearings have begun for about 30 University of Texas Medical Branch faculty members who are fighting for jobs lost in mass layoffs after Hurricane Ike.
The 30 are among 127 faculty members dismissed after the Sept. 13 storm flooded more than 1 million square feet of buildings on the island campus, knocking John Sealy Hospital, its main revenue maker, out of commission for months.
The medical branch declared “financial exigency,” a crisis that threatened its survival, before conducting layoffs that ultimately cost nearly 2,500 people their jobs.
Cloak Of Exigency?
But some faculty members, many world-renowned in their fields, say the institution had long before the storm been working to thin out tenured positions and used post-Ike chaos as cover to do so.
Some also argue that methods used to decide who to cut and who to keep were open to influence by professional jealousies and political agendas.
“Clearly the ‘financial exigency’ as narrowly defined did not drive the process of selecting programs and positions for termination, but instead, became a convenient excuse or explanation for what appears to be a general reduction in force that is not specifically related to Hurricane Ike or related financial shortfalls,” wrote Dr. Charles E Holzer III, a full professor at the medical branch’s Department of Psychiatry, in an appeal he made public online.
“The process morphed away from an initial focus on long-term reduction in hospital size to a transient excuse to terminate faculty who were neither the cause of the financial shortfall nor even the optimal means of restoring the budget.”
Holzer, 65, worked at the medical branch for 24 years. He and others say the medical branch moved swiftly and did not have time to properly evaluate faculty members before the cuts began.
But the institution, home to research facilities and the state’s oldest medical school, put careful thought into the decisions, official say.
“There was tremendous effort to make this process as fair as possible,” said Jacqueline Genovese, a medical branch spokeswoman. “We spent at least four weeks working on the faculty reduction in force.”
Panel Process
About half of the faculty members who have requested appeal hearings have achieved tenure, the status of having a permanent post at an academic institution. But medical branch officials are not required to consider tenure when cutting positions under financial exigency, officials say.
“However, when individual positions were considered for termination, tenure was taken into account if all other factors were equal,” said Dr. Garland Anderson, executive vice president and provost and dean of the medical branch’s School of Medicine.
Which faculty members had appealed was unclear Monday.
The Daily News requested the names and positions Friday through state open records laws, but the university had not provided them by Tuesday.
Three-member panels of tenured faculty are hearing the appeals. Panels don’t include members from the appellant’s own department, officials say.
Panel members have 30 work days following a hearing to make a recommendation to medical branch President Dr. David Callender, who then has 30 work days to make a decision, officials say.
At The Mercy Of Whims
George Reamy of the Texas Faculty Association, a nonprofit organization that advocates for higher education faculty and support staff, said the medical branch did not have time to independently evaluate faculty before making the cuts and was forced to rely on the recommendations of department chairs.
“They left the faculty open to agendas, likes and dislikes,” Reamy said. “Faculty was at the mercy of the whims of the chairs.”
Holzer, whose hearing is March 31, still is working at the medical branch because he’s being paid until August.
The hurricane damaged his island home, which is under repair. Some days, he feels like a ghost walking the halls as some colleagues avoid him, he said.
Although he could retire, he’s not ready, he said.
“I’m still functional — they’ll find out when they read this appeal,” Holzer said. “I figure I have more work to do. I want to keep on working as long as I can.”
Pain Felt
Appeals are being handled fairly, Anderson said.
“This has been a painful process for everyone involved,” Anderson said. “UTMB is conducting the process with extreme care to protect the rights of faculty members.”
Hurricane Ike caused about $710 million in damages and expenses, officials say. Along with the lay offs, another 600 medical branch employees have quit since the storm, according to reports.
The medical branch had by early this month rehired more than 500 employees and planned to hire hundreds more as it reopened units and beds at the hospital.
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On The Web
To read Holzer’s appeal, go to http://psy.utmb.edu.
