Choosing Up Sides at Auburn

By Anastasia Toufexis

The debate sharpens over President Funderburk's policies

"We have an all-out family feud here, and in a family feud there are no winners," says William Godwin, student-body president. "The loser will be Auburn University."

The bitter feud that has split one of the South's best-known institutions of higher learning swirls around President Hanly Funderburk, 51, who took office in April 1980. Funderburk's policies have sapped morale, antagonized many members of the faculty and administrative staff, raised the specter of political control and brought into question the mission of the 127-year-old institution in the Alabama town that bears its name. Three vice presidents have resigned in protest, and the faculty has twice passed no-confidence votes against the president, the last by a 3-to-l margin. In November, Funderburk refused the faculty's request that he step down. Matters worsened last week with the resignation of Wayne Flynt as chairman of the history department. Three days earlier, Gerald Johnson had quit as head of the political-science program. Said he: "I know that I could not in good conscience and integrity tell a young faculty member that Auburn is the place for you in your professional future."

At the heart of the dispute is a struggle between academics and politicians over the direction and emphasis of education at Auburn. The majority of the faculty is convinced that Funderburk, with the backing of most of the school's board of trustees and the support of the Alabama Farm Bureau, intends to concentrate the school's resources on agriculture and engineering at the expense of the liberal arts and sciences. Auburn has placed strong emphasis on instruction in agriculture and engineering since 1872, when it became a land-grant college. Over the years, though, its mission broadened. Today, Auburn is a comprehensive university, with 23,000 students, that offers doctoral programs in 40 disciplines.

The fight centering on Funderburk is not so much over what he has done as it is over what his opponents on the faculty fear he and the board may do in the future. Funderburk's critics see ominous portents in the fact that he has created a vice presidency for agriculture, home economics and veterinary medicine. Taylor Littleton, a professor of English who resigned last year as the vice president for academic affairs, feels that the president has a "narrow, provincial" view of the university's role.

Raised in rural Pickens County, Funderburk earned a master's degree in botany from Auburn and a doctorate in plant physiology at Louisiana State University. He had taught at Auburn since 1961, and in 1968 was named head of the school's branch in Montgomery. Faced with a budget crisis when he became president three years ago, Funderburk promptly infuriated many faculty members by tightening accounting procedures in the library, forcing the cancellation of one-third of its periodical subscriptions. When the faculty protested the reduction, charges History Professor Donathan Olliff: "We got the response that the library is no more, in terms of priorities, than buildings and grounds." Another sore point: a Funderburk aide suggested that faculty members granting interviews to the press report the "nature of such conversations" to the director of university relations. To most of the faculty, that sounded like censorship. Funderburk's problems have also been complicated by his style of working with a small group of loyalists and his exhortatory manner.

Funderburk, who maintains that he has no plans to cut back the liberal arts, argues that the budget crunch forced economies in all areas and that the library bore its fair share. He has since secured $300,000 in additional funding for the library. "I shifted the emphasis to salaries and keeping as many people as I could," he says of his general philosophy. Indeed, under Funderburk, no one on the teaching staff has been laid off because of a lack of money. Funderburk claims that his efforts to strengthen the agriculture and engineering programs are simply a response to growing interest in those fields.

Funderburk's aggressive approach is defended by some members of his cadre of supporters on the faculty. Declares Sociologist Arthur Wilke: "I have found him receptive and capable of distinguishing issues from personalities." Says Funderburk of the criticism of his style: "You don't make people happy trying to solve the kinds of problems we face. But strong leadership was what was needed, and that is what we tried to provide."

Last month the university's board of trustees tried to still the uproar over Funderburk by putting him in charge of a new administrative organization for the university's two branches, but placing day-to-day operations at the Auburn campus into the hands of a chancellor. That official, however, will report to Funderburk. The solution has only reinforced the faculty's fears. Its main proponent was R.C. ("Red") Bamberg, 71, vice chairman of the board and a major figure in rural Democratic politics and the Alabama Farm Bureau. Bamberg, who has served on the board since 1956, was nominated last month by Governor George Wallace to a new twelve-year term. Wallace, who is regarded by the faculty as being pro-Funderburk, also failed to renominate Lawyer Robert Harris for another term as trustee. Harris has been opposed to retaining Funderburk as university president.

While the furor grew last week, the student newspaper the Plainsman proposed its solution to the crisis: "No more long-winded analyses on the controversy. Dr. Funderburk, for the good of Auburn University, please resign." But President Funderburk, saying he is indeed acting for the good of the university, insists that he will stay.

--By Anastasia Toufexis. Reported by Joseph N. Boyce/Auburn

With reporting by Joseph N. Boyce This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.