Lecturer Brian MacPherson has worked in the philosophy department for the last 16 years. In September, he received a letter informing him he would be laid off June 1, 2012.

MacPherson isn’t the only lecturer who will be dismissed in June. He and Lecturer Gregory Sax have both been laid off by the Department of Philosophy to be replaced by tenured professors who will teach introductory courses. According to University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald, philosophy is one of many University departments to hire tenure-track professors in place of lecturers as part of a University-wide attempt to increase the number of tenured research professors.

Fitzgerald said the University is in the process of hiring 150 professors to teach in to various areas of study, in contrast to other universities around the country that are laying off faculty. He added that the University has already hired half of a proposed 100 junior-level faculty members and is expected to hire an additional 50 faculty members.

“We see that as a very positive thing for the University,” he said. “It’s a pretty significant commitment among major U.S. universities today.”

Yet these changes are being made at the expense of qualified lecturers such as MacPherson. Fitzgerald said the department made its decision after much deliberation, and gave the lecturers fair warning. He added that the dept. has been available to offer assistance to those affected. He said the layoffs that are happening in the philosophy department are not indicative of a general trend of lecturer layoffs at the University.

“I know the department feels strongly that this is the right move for the department,” Fitzgerald said. “Generally, there certainly are people who would see this as a positive move to have more introductory classes taught by faculty … tenure and tenure-track faculty.”

Kirsten Herold, vice president of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization and a lecturer in the School of Public Health, administers union contracts for LEO, which sets guidelines for the relationship between lecturers and the University. Herold said the University is expecting to have more tenure-track faculty teaching undergraduate courses — which has already begun to happen over the years in departments such as geology, Spanish and English — but added that the situation in the philosophy department has been more extreme.

“(MacPherson and Sax are) being laid off because they’re lecturers,” Herold said. “The department has basically decided that they don’t want lecturers anymore. It’s not because of the quality of undergraduate education, because these two are incredibly good and popular teachers.”

Usually, if a department wants to replace lecturers with professors, the lecturers are relocated within the department to teach a lower-level course. However, Herold explained that MacPherson and Sax are already teaching introductory courses.

Herold added there is a greater distinction between the levels of courses in other fields of study and it is easier for the University to have instructors other courses, noting that lecturers can teach introductory levels and professors can teach advanced material. But that isn’t the case in a department like philosophy, where tenure-track faculty teach lower level courses, according to Herold.

Herold said the philosophy department is not financially struggling since it holds independent wealth from private endowments, and therefore firing lecturers is not a financial necessity but a strategic decision for the department to employ more researchers.

“They didn’t have to do this,” Herold said. “This is not a department that is struggling … in terms of their budgets. They did it because they wanted to.”

Herold said she is outraged about how MacPherson and Sax have been treated.

“I’m really upset about this,” she said.