Professors at Saskatchewan's largest university say there is "a crisis in leadership" at the school.
The University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association says there are more questions than answers about the firing in May of a professor who spoke out against budget cuts.
Prof. Robert Buckingham was offered back — and accepted — a tenure position, but was not reinstated as head of the School of Public Health.
The fallout led to the resignation of Brett Fairbairn, the university's provost and vice-president academic, and then the firing of president Ilene Busch-Vishniac.
But the faculty association says in a letter posted online that it's astounded that acting university president Gordon Barnhart is apparently unwilling to initiate any further review.
The letter questions who drove the decision to fire the professor and whether people who are not academics are making decisions about tenure.
"There continues to be a crisis in leadership at the University of Saskatchewan and there is a clear inability of leadership to make sound decisions. We are as perplexed as the public by recent developments and have a host of questions," the faculty association letter states.
"It will be the choice of senior administrators and the board of governors as to whether or not actions will be taken, and what those actions might be. Pervasive contradictions have been swirling around leadership at the University of Saskatchewan and there are more questions than answers," the letter continues.
"Faculty, students and taxpayers deserve direct and honest answers to these questions."
Controversy erupted at the university after the school released a plan earlier this spring that includes cutting jobs, reorganizing administration and dissolving some programs to try to save about $25 million. The cuts are part of a bigger goal to address a projected $44.5-million deficit in the school's operating budget by 2016.
Hundreds of students, staff, faculty and alumni sent a letter to Barnhart, urging him to get rid of the overhaul known as TransformUS.
