Ivor Van Heerden

Updated 6/18 (5:25 p.m.)

Administrations that run three of Louisiana's public univerities were called out by the American Association of University Professors this weekend. LSU, Southeastern Louisiana University and Northwestern State University were all voted onto the AAUP's censure list Saturday, joining about 50 other administrations that the group flagged for grievous violations of academic standards. At all three universities, the censures stem from the firings of professors.

LSU made the list thanks to the ongoing saga of ex-prof Ivor Van Heerden, who was fired by the university following the federal flood after years of outspokeness about the faulty New Orleans levee system. The AAUP released a report last year that connected Van Heerden's firing directly to his criticism of the Corps.

Meanwhile, SLU and Northwestern State University were added to the list because the organization contends they fired "unwanted" tenured professors, and used budget cuts as a justification. At Northwestern State, 16 profs were given the boot in fields like economics, journalism, political science, sociology, German, chemistry, and physics. Programs were also discontinued in those areas. A report argues the administration did not consult faculty about budget cuts, and did not seek to cut non-tenure track positions before tenure track.

At SLU, three French professors were axed in a parish that features French as the official language. The administration never provided a good reason for the firing, the AAUP argues.

The trio of universities are the first institutions censured since 2010.

UPDATE 6/18, 5:25 p.m.

We initially neglected to mention that LSU was also censured in connection with the firing of biology professor Dominique G. Homberger, who was terminated after student complaints that she graded too low. Homberger was suspended without a faculty hearing, the AAUP said.

Today, LSU Chancellor Michael Martin issued a statement about the censures, citing pending litigation in the von Heerden case and employee confidentiality as reasons he couldn't get into specifics.

"We have done our best to get to the bottom of these issues and have handled them appropriately," the statement said. "We're always interested in what the AAUP has to say, however, in these cases, they did not speak to me at all and I can't know all of the details."