San Francisco Art Institute Laying Off 25% of Faculty
![sfai_ship_going_down.jpg](/uploads/2009/04/16/sfai_ship_going_down.jpg)
San Francisco Art Institute Action and Information Board
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PETITION SIGNATURES TO DATE:
Total- 636
Within Past Week- 126
Some background for the contents of this page:
On February 6, an executive committee of the Board of Trustees and a small body of senior Administration, declared SFAI to be in a state of "financial exigency". Financial exigency is defined by SFAI's faculty union contract as "the critical and urgent need for the Institute to reorder it expenditures in such a way as to retain solvency," and essentially indicates that SFAI is in a state of extreme financial distress. Concerns have been raised about what such a declaration means for the future of the school, its reputation, accreditation, and ability to deliver a high quality education to its students.
Stephanie Ellis (11 years of service)
Stacy Garfinkel (10 years of service)
Robert Johnson (29 years of service)
Pat Klein (25 years of service)
Jon Lang (16 years of service)
Janis Crystal Lipzin (31 years of service)
Suzanne Olmsted (17 years of service)
John Rapko (12 years of service)
In addition to the concern that many students have for these faculty members as individuals, concerns have been raised about the specific way in which the layoffs were done and the impact they will have on the curriculum. Specifically, concern has been raised that the layoffs disproportionately affect those who have been vocal critics of SFAI's current administration, that they were carried out without discussion or transparency, and that the manner in which they were carried out violates of a number of provisions of the faculty contract.
SF WEEKLY BLOG PICKS UP STUDENT PROTEST
Student Response to Enwezor's Letter
Dean Enwezor's Response to Freedom of Speech Violations
SFAI STUDENT FREE SPEECH NUTSHELL
Student Statement to the Board of Trustees 3-26-09
SFAI Community Letter of Concern
Letters From the Outside Art World
Student Union Meeting with Espi Sanjana 3/25 (temporarily down)
Student Union Meeting with Okwui Enwezor 3/13 (coming SOON!)
Student Statement at Student Union Meeting with Dean Enwezor Mar 13, 2009
Layoffs Not the Answer Article
INSIDE HIGHER ED NEWS: 'Embracing Tenure'
Higher Education Responds To Economic Downturn
Faculty Union Fact Sheet #3 3/25/2009
Faculty Union Fact Sheet #2 3/3/09
Faculty Union Fact Sheet #1: February 26, 2009
AAUP Treasurer- Analyzing Financial Exigency
Article About Higher Education Restructuring in the Face of Economic Downturn
AAUP Policy Documents and Reports- The Role of the Faculty in Budgetary and Salary Matters
Financial Exigency Article from BNET
Letter to Alumni From Chris Bratton
Letter from In Defense of Animals President
LOGS Minutes: Monday February, 23 12 noon, 3rd Street Lecture Hall
Student Statement at LOGS meeting February 23, 2009
Letter From Administration Announcing Layoff of 9 Tenured Faculty: Monday, February 23, 2009
SFAI Agreement for the Faculty Bargaining Unit 2005-2010
"...to achieve competitiveness of SFAI amongst in [sic] the market, and maintain the delivery of high level and quality education to all our students, the Dean of Academic Affairs recommended to the president and to members of board of trustees that the aforementioned faculty members be laid off."- Espi Sanjana, COO San Francisco Art Institute in an Administration document.
"Historical and social events are subject to almost instant censorship by those who have better access and control over the medium of communication. It is important that there exist people skilled in the use of the technological instruments of communication who will seek out the real truth behind the headlines and tell it for all to see, know, and hear." - activist Dhoruba Bin Wahad, quoted in the video Framing the Panthers in Black and White by Chris Bratton
" There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
- excerpt from Mario Savio speech at U.C. Berkeley in the 1960s
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