Proration Litigation

["President's Office" <auemail@groupwise1.duc.auburn.edu>]

May 31, 2001

Dear AU Friends:

The final briefs in the proration litigation were filed May 29, 2001. 
The Alabama Supreme Court has granted oral argument on the case on June
20, 2001 and we expect a decision to follow shortly thereafter.  There
have been a number of reports from the media and others that higher
education is trying to turn back the hands of time to a segregationist
era. Of course that is not true as even a cursory reading of out initial
briefs make clear and by the fact that both Alabama A&M and Alabama
State have taken the same legal position. Surely no one suggests that
those institutions would want to return to a segregationist era.   We
have taken care in our final written statement to the court (the "Reply
Brief") to answer such accusations.  I have attached a copy of that
brief to this message so members of the Auburn community can read it
directly without the distorted filter some have used to attack higher
education.  

Our position is simple - that education is a single fabric, K-PhD, and
that neither K-12 or higher education should have a priority in state
funding either initially or in times of proration.

Sincerely,


William F. Walker
Interim President

WordPerfect 6.1