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I have a few more things to say at this point about the tragedy at University of Alabama, Huntsville. That situation at this point is publicly awash in the usual, often breathless media "revelations" about Dr Amy Bishop, the shooter. Anything real or alleged in her background is tossed in all directions, sans any critical analysis: a gun incident long ago when she was 19 or so in which her brother died but at which no charges were pressed and which was labeled then as an accident; the fact that years later, she and her husband, as well as a number of other people similarly situated, were questioned about a bomb plot involving as target an academic supervisor; other recollections with speculative grounding given to voracious and un-critical reporters. It seems clear she did an acceptable job at UAH; in some dimensions, an exceptional one. It's been difficult to reach relevant search engine pages on certain internal UAH officialdom and policy matters since a number of those pages seem no longer available at this point. One of the university's spokespersons in this affair -- and UAH is doing its best to assure the public that Dr Bishop was treated fairly -- is a man who I knew back in the University of North Dakota days and who I have no reason to trust. With a little intricate computer searching, I finally found the school's promotion and tenure policies. Nothing too unusual there -- about standard. In healthy academic institutions those policies work more or less OK, in others they do not. And a goodly number of higher educational institutions in both public and private sectors are not, at this point, healthy. Lost for the time being, at least, in all of this dust and smoke -- and in the very real all-around tragedy itself -- is the Tenure Issue. A few days ago, I posted this from the New York Times which quotes Dr Bishop's spouse: _______________________________ This strikes me as a reasonably inclusive piece from the NYT. It contains, among other things, these telling sentences: "Mr. Anderson said that months ago, the university administration overruled a successful appeal of the decision to deny Dr. Bishop tenure in spring 2009. "She won her appeal," he said, "and the provost canned it." The university has declined to elaborate on the details of Dr. Bishop's tenure application, saying only that she was denied last spring and that she could stay at the university only until the end of this academic year. Even if a faculty member successfully appeals a tenure denial, the final decision rests with the administration." ________________________________________ I haven't heard anything more about this dimension -- but UAH has not denied this. Dr Bishop did file suit about the negative outcome of her tenure appeal and one of the legal pegs re the suit [and the appeal itself] was the fact that, after the official deadline for submission of her tenure application materials, she had attempted to include two academic papers she'd recently done. She was told she couldn't add them. About all I can contribute on that is that when I filed for promotion to Full Professor at University of North Dakota, [I had earlier received "early tenure" based on my many years of prior college/university teaching], I included a statement to the effect that my book, Jackson Mississippi, was due to be reprinted with a brief update by me, via a well established textbook publisher. In the midst of my "promotion process", the actual and tangible reprint, a large paperback with an attractive cover, arrived. I wasn't planning to toss it in the on-going hopper but did mention it to one of the higher level committee members. "Put it in right now," I was told. And so I did. I got the promotion. I suspect that slight, flexible modification of time-line rules is par in many higher ed settings [A year later, the state legislature voted a modest appropriation increase for North Dakota's colleges and universities but it was overturned by a state-wide referendum. Caught up in fiscal crises, the internal atmosphere at UND became jungle-like -- pronto. And that's an interesting story in its own right.] What do I think? I think Dr Bishop got badly shafted. And I say again that, if any good is going to emerge from this all-around tragedy in Alabama, it will lie in a searching examination of higher ed tenure and promotion policies nationally. And a great deal of tangible reformation thereof. Yours, Hunter HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm For Black History Month, five of our many Southern civil rights history links: [Each page has several pieces] http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm http://hunterbear.org/Woolworth%20Sitin%20Jackson.htm http://hunterbear.org/most_sweeping_anti.htm http://hunterbear.org/first.htm http://hunterbear.org/NORTH%20CAROLINA_OUR%20SUCCESSFUL%20BLACK%20BELT%20MOVEMENT.htm ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
