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A tenured professor at Louisiana State University at Shreveport who was accused by his campus chancellor of “creating a toxic and hostile work environment” says he’s been fired.
Brian Salvatore provided Inside Higher Ed a letter, dated Friday, from LSU System president William F. Tate IV, saying he was fired effective immediately. The system didn’t return requests for comment Wednesday.
Salvatore had accused his colleagues of incompetence, plagiarism and open meetings violations. In a Nov. 8 letter, LSU Shreveport campus chancellor Robert T. Smith said faculty and staff senate leaders had reported Salvatore to human resources, and Smith made 13 charges against him, according to a copy of that letter that Salvatore’s attorney provided Inside Higher Ed.
Faculty members on Salvatore’s termination hearing committee later unanimously recommended firing him, Salvatore said. His termination hearing was April 8, and The Shreveport–Bossier City Advocate reported that a Louisiana judge ruled in late May that LSU Shreveport violated the state’s open meetings law in that hearing. Nevertheless, the judge, Beau M. Higginbotham, didn’t vacate the committee’s termination recommendation, Salvatore and the newspaper said.
Salvatore, a prominent local environmental advocate, has argued that the allegations against him involved protected speech, including about environmental hazards. He told Inside Higher Ed Wednesday, “I’m an advocate for other people, and the only time I advocate for myself is when I’m being unfairly attacked, as in this situation.”
In the termination letter, Tate said his decision was “not directed to your exercise of free speech.” He said it was “based on your own disruptive behavior” and “the reported impact on faculty, staff, administration and, most importantly, students.”
Salvatore disputes that. “I was not disruptive of shared governance,” he said. “I spoke out about the corruption of the principles of shared governance by the LSUS [LSU Shreveport] administration.”
His lawyer, J. Arthur Smith III, said Salvatore will ask the LSU System Board of Supervisors to review the termination. Arthur Smith also said his client “contemplates filing a federal lawsuit, because he was fired because of his free speech, and that’s completely illegal and unconstitutional.”
