When a math department lays off tenured staff, people cry out loud.
But, 10 years later, such memories are no longer popular discussion subjects, and so the information doesn't always spread.
Those who lived through it will of course remember. But will the younger get to know of the troubled past of a given university?
I would like to record incidents of universities laying off tenured math faculty for financial reasons. If you know of such an event, please write the name of the university, the year when it happened, and the number of tenured faculty that got laid off. Other relevant information, such whether or not there was a lawsuit, aggravating circumstances, etc. should also be included.
(This is a follow up on this discussion about the VU Amsterdam laying off people.)
Best Answer
Two tenured professors at the University of Uppsala, Oleg Viro and Burglind Joricke, were forced to resign in 2007. The reason seems to have been a disagreement with the rector of the University, Anders Hallberg, over an appointment of an applied maths professor. (As far as I know, there weren't financial reasons involved, but still I thought it might be worthwhile to mention this here.)
More details can be found here http://www.pdmi.ras.ru/~olegviro/Uppsala-8-2-2007.html