30 March 2016
Letter to Chris Keane and Robert Rosenman from Donna Potts, president of WSU-AAUP:

The WSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors has expressed concern about how Dr. Robert Wielgus has been treated by WSU.  The faculty manual of WSU clearly states that faculty have “academic freedom… free from institutional censorship or discipline.”   Furthermore, the AAUP's founding document, the 1915 Declaration of Principles, maintains that “Once appointed, the scholar has professional functions to perform in which the appointing authorities have neither competency nor moral right to intervene.”

In his complaint and the supporting documentation, Dr. Wielgus has detailed numerous examples of ways in which his research has been publicly questioned by WSU and/or he has been disciplined by means of restricted access to do said research for his work with the wolf pack at Profanity Peak (Ferry County, Washington), or for having expressed his opinions about the fate of said pack.   

The AAUP calls upon the Faculty Senate and its committees to uphold the standards of academic freedom outlined in the faculty manual, based on the AAUP's 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.