A university teachers group has taken the rare step of censuring First Nations University of Canada — and is advising its members not to work at the Regina-based institution.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers voted unanimously over the weekend to take the step against the FNUC — the first time in nearly three decades it has censured a university.

The group said it's not happy with the changes that have been made to deal with academic freedom, governance and political autonomy.

CAUT met with senior FNUC administrators in June and was promised a meeting with the board of governors later in the fall.

However, that meeting never happened, it said.

After a long discussion this weekend, the CAUT voted to go ahead with a formal censure. The censuring vote means academic staff across the country and around the world will be asked not to accept jobs, honours or awards at FNUC.

They are also being advised to turn down invitations to speak and take part in academic conferences there.

FNUC could make the problems go away if the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations would just listen to its own all-chiefs task force, CAUT executive director James Turk said.

The all-chiefs report from November 2005 recommended establishing a new kind of university governance with fewer politicians at the helm.

"The single most important set of recommendations it had was changes that were meant to create a new kind of board of governors that was smaller and depoliticized, and it laid out precise recommendations on how to do that," he said.

"For whatever reason, the recommendations of the all-chief task force with regard to governance were never implemented. Were the FSIN to implement those, the problem would be gone in 30 seconds."

The last time CAUT censured a university was 1979, when it cited Memorial University in Newfoundland.

First Nations University is based in Regina and has campuses in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

It came to CAUT's attention following a string of dismissals and departures of senior administrators and faculty.

In recent years, FNUC has also suffered from decreasing enrolment and financial problems, CAUT said.

Later in the day Monday, an FSIN spokesman said he doesn't understand why CAUT acted the way it did.

Vice-chief Lyle Whitefish noted that another university group that once had concerns, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, now says it's happy with the progress FNUC has made.

"They are quite satisfied with the work we've done in the last couple of years of addressing those issues that CAUT has raised," he said.

"In fact, we've been reinstated back to the association and we are working really well with the AUCC.

A meeting will be held with the CAUT in the hope of reaching some middle ground, he said.

But FNUC will need to hold its ground, too — to maintain its autonomy and identity as a First Nations-run institution, he said.