Louisiana Voice

By Marc R. Settembrino, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology; Member: United Federation of College Teachers, American Association of University Professors

The following text represents my personal views and does not necessarily represent the views of Southeastern Louisiana University.

Last week, Dr. Wainwright attended the Faculty Senate Meeting at Southeastern Louisiana University. He’s got a busy schedule, and I appreciate that he took the time to speak directly with faculty about the challenges facing Southeastern.

Dr. Wainwright shared that in a recent survey, faculty identified low morale as our single biggest concern. Students, he explained, are seeing it too, ranking faculty morale as the second most important issue affecting the university. I’ve been thinking about this ever since.

Salary is absolutely part of the morale problem. Southeastern faculty are among the lowest paid in the region, and many salaries that stagnated during the Jindal administration never recovered. Dr. Wainwright shared that some faculty members earn less than $40,000 a year. He also indicated that salary increases are being considered once certain financial benchmarks are met. That’s encouraging. But salary alone will not fix morale.

Historically, universities have thrived on the principles of shared governance and academic freedom. Both are essential to morale, and both have been weakened over time, nationally and here at Southeastern.

Shared governance means that universities are run collaboratively. Administrators, faculty, staff, and sometimes students all share responsibility for major institutional decisions. When shared governance works, faculty are not just told what to do; we are part of the process. That matters because faculty are more invested and more accountable when we have a meaningful voice in decisions that shape our work and our students’ experiences.

In my 13 years at Southeastern, my colleagues have repeatedly raised concerns about major decisions being made behind closed doors in Dynson Hall, often without explanation, consultation, or a clear implementation plan. Too often, policies arrive as directives, leaving faculty scrambling to comply with little guidance beyond an implicit “do it now” or, in the worst cases, warnings about “insubordination.” This lack of transparency and heavy-handedness creates frustration, uncertainty, and resentment, all of which erode morale.

A recent example discussed at the February Senate meeting was a new administrative goal that part-time instructors should deliver 30% of instruction at Southeastern.

For readers unfamiliar with university labor, part-time instructors—often called adjuncts—are hired on a course-by-course basis. They typically receive low pay, no benefits, and no guarantee of continued employment. Nationally, adjuncts are among the most economically vulnerable workers in higher education.

On December 17, 2025, department heads received a memo from the provost stating that departments should plan for at least 30% of instructional activity to be delivered by part-time instructors, including adjuncts, graduate teaching fellows, and other qualified teaching staff. The announcement surprised many faculty and raised immediate concerns.

Would full-time faculty be laid off to make room for part-time labor? These fears are especially pressing because many full-time instructors at Southeastern already work on short-term contracts with limited job security.

At the Senate meeting, Dr. Wainwright described the policy as a long-term goal rather than an immediate mandate, explaining that the university hopes to reach it through attrition—meaning that as full-time faculty retire or leave, positions may be eliminated or converted into part-time instructional roles.

While this clarification helped, the broader issue remains: the policy’s rollout followed a familiar top-down pattern that left faculty anxious about our livelihoods and the future of our university. Given Southeastern’s continued placement on the American Association of University Professors’ censure list following the unlawful termination of tenured faculty in 2011, such fears are not irrational. When communication is limited and governance is weak, trust suffers.

Concerns about morale are further intensified by growing threats to academic freedom. Academic freedom protects the free pursuit of knowledge in service of the public good, allowing faculty to research, publish, and teach without fear of political retaliation or administrative interference.

Across the country, this principle is under attack. In states like Florida and Texas, lawmakers have passed laws restricting what can be taught in public universities, prompting administrative censorship to comply. While Louisiana has not yet enacted similar bans, many faculty at Southeastern worry that they are on the horizon, and that administrators may not stand firmly behind faculty if they do. These fears are compounded by reports of Southeastern faculty facing retaliation for exercising First Amendment rights, and by proposed changes to the academic freedom policy that would narrow protections for teaching “controversial” topics.

To the administration’s credit, the Faculty Senate was consulted on proposed academic freedom policy changes, and I am hopeful that faculty guidance will be taken seriously. Still, these concerns intersect with concerns about the new 30% goal. A faculty increasingly composed of part-time instructors—who lack job security and are excluded from shared governance—cannot meaningfully exercise academic freedom. When faculty are disposable, so too is their ability to speak freely.

Low faculty morale at Southeastern did not appear overnight. For more than a decade, Southeastern faculty have felt treated less like professionals and more like problems to be managed. This history predates the current administration, and I do not envy Drs. Wainwright and Skipper for inheriting these challenges. I appreciate Dr. Wainwright’s efforts to be more visible and engaged with faculty, and there have been positive steps forward. But rebuilding trust takes time.

Improving morale will require more than salary adjustments alone. Raises are badly needed and long overdue, but morale cannot be improved by redistributing scarcity, especially if that means laying off colleagues who contribute daily to student learning and campus life.

Ultimately, morale is about trust. Rebuilding it will require sustained commitment to shared governance, transparency in decision-making, and meaningful protection of academic freedom. If faculty are treated as partners rather than obstacles, morale will improve, and when faculty thrive, so do students and the institution as a whole.

Meanwhile, a hearing has been set for chemistry professor who was removed for connecting water pollution to heavy industry:

Last year, Dr. Fereshteh Emami was removed from her position as the lead investigator on the Lake Maurepas Monitoring Project, a Southeastern Louisiana University research project funded by Air Products & Chemicals. Her removal came immediately after media coverage of her research, which connected water pollution to heavy industry.

In theDr. Emami filed an academic freedom grievance with the university. An amended version of that grievance is attached. A hearing will be held regarding her grievance on February 20, 2026 at 10:00am at Southeastern Louisiana University, in Room 205 of Fayard Hall. The hearing will be open to media and the public.