Canisius University faculty will hold a picket and teach-in Friday morning to protest the administration’s plan to cut $15 million from the university’s operating budget for next year.
Members of Canisius’ chapter of the American Association of University Professors say they are concerned that slashing that amount by the spring will harm university programs and that morale among faculty and students is already sagging due to several professors and administrators leaving or being fired in the past year.
“Management decisions are eroding the quality of education at Canisius, and so we stand together … to defend quality education at Canisius,” the AAUP chapter said. “When you de-prioritize faculty, you de-prioritize student learning.”
The Canisius AAUP, Local 6741 of the American Federation of Teachers, claims Canisius President Steve Stoute and his administration are making decisions without consulting faculty, in spite of the university’s shared governance policies.
Canisius AAUP President Tanya Loughead has been a philosophy professor for 19 years, and is an officer in the state AAUP and a member of Canisius’ faculty senate. She said faculty and students were already concerned about the departures of 11 faculty members and at least three administrators in the last year before Stoute announced a plan to address a $7 to $10 million structural deficit while adding new programs by reducing the university’s operating budget by $15 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year that begins in July.
Stoute, who took over as Canisius president in 2022,…
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