WBRZ - Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - The top national organization of university professors has censured Louisiana State University for alleged mistreatment of faculty, including a coastal researcher fired after Hurricane Katrina and a biology professor removed from a class for alleged harsh grading.

The Advocate reports that LSU is the only public flagship university on the national list of those censured Saturday by the American Association of University Professors.

The group also censured Southeastern Louisiana and Northwestern State universities. They were censured for allegedly using state budget cuts and academic program eliminations as excuses to fire some tenured faculty members.

LSU's censure focused on firing Ivor van Heerden in 2009 and the 2010 removal of Dominique Homberger from a biology class.

LSU interim President William Jenkins said he wanted to review the document before commenting.