Good luck to him. As someone close to academics, I can tell you MANY people are denied tenure after having been approved at the department level.
I can understand being upset but does he think anyone will give him a job after doing this? Who wants to hire someone who reacts like this when they don’t get their way?
Provosts or presidents frequently overturn faculty committee recommendations on tenure. Sometimes it works the other way; people who were voted down by their colleagues are given tenure by higher-ups. Going on a hunger strike seems remarkably useless in this situation. Tenure is a privilege, not a right. Perhaps if he had not reacted in this bridge-burning way, Lafayette might have given him a short-term contract to allow him to job-search while still drawing a salary.
I understand not wanting to uproot your family or go back on a tough job market but let’s face it, those are pretty common challenges in the “real world” and not exactly hunger-strike-level injustices.
For a case I was working on, I had to review the hiring and tenure decisions at a major university over a certain period (maybe 3-5 years). It was amazing at the poor job they did at the department level. There was a checklist that each department was supposed to fill out, with things like 3 letters of recommendation, a review of published articles and books, student reviews. I don’t think I found one that was complete. Some of the agriculture departments came close, but the social science departments didn’t even try. They did not care.
The case was one where the social science department hired a assistant prof and was promoting him to full professor, full tenure (two levels higher). The candidate didn’t have the required publications or years of experience to be a full tenured professor, but at the department level they didn’t really care. The university president stepped in and made the right decision to reject the candidate.
“Why a Lafayette professor is on a hunger strike” - because he is stupid…and the one who has this condition should not be teaching at college anyway…it will take him sometime to understand, I hope it will not take him his life. But somebody should point out to him, that hunger may cause death, he may not be at capacity to understand that.
You just can’t make up stuff this good.
I guess I’ve never seen why hunger strikes are compelling (for anything). You want to go on a hunger strike? Go for it. Why would I capitulate when you are the one choosing to harm yourself?
Hunger strikes are a form of trying to gain control and morally embarrass the authorities in a situation where you have no control over anything except over whether you eat or not. In this situation, it seems silly, I agree. This professor is not a prisoner. He has choices. It’s a self-indulgent stunt, and, as others have said, a foolish one because it hurts his chances of being hired elsewhere.
Alternate title, “Man denied lifetime employment decides to starve himself rather than search for a new job”.
He said he is doing it for the greater cause - to change of this wrong practice for all professors and return the power to the faculty committee, at the price of ending his career.
That is one problem with collegial self-governance (it does have some advantages though). People don’t like to judge their own too harshly and it’s awkward to turn down a colleague you work with every day (unless they are really terrible and you want them gone). That’s why multiple levels of review are needed. The tenure process shouldn’t just be a popularity contest but it often starts out that way.
Popularity contest… or UNpopularity contest. As NJSue points out, it can work both ways.
I know of a case where the deprtment decided against tenure for a female candidate. The department was dominated by older male faculty members who, in the eyes of many observers, were intimidated by this younger, dynamic woman. Luckily, the Dean’s office, and higher up, saw through it, and awarded tenue.
But this, from my understanding on reading elsewhere, is not a case of not qualified or didn’t submit what he was supposed to. Apparently much of the decision was based on student evaluations. Which, I submit, is terrible for all kinds of reasons.
Join the real world. 8-|
Companies all over have layoffs. The pink-slipped workers don’t go on hunger strikes.
I think it is hard, particularly in a small department, to cast a vote against your colleague and friend. There may be a culture there of departments voting yes knowing that the provost or President will overturn cases that are not as strong.
Interestingly, he got pretty mediocre ratings on Rate my Professor. I understand that is a blog that anyone can add ratings to, but in my kid’s experiences the ratings are fairly (but certainly not always) on point.
He has a rather long tenure clock. The clock at most universities is 6 years. He seems to have an extension of another two years. This length of extension usually requires a good reason.
Provost or president usually will not deny a tenure when it is approved at the department and the university level. The usual reason for such denial can be that the student enrollment at that department has been decreasing. Thus, the faculty at that department needs to be downsized. In many humanities/liberal arts departments (including Spanish) today, we sometimes see this kind of thing happen.
I got curious about what were his students complaining about that the president vetoed it. So I checked Ratemyprofessor review. It was the kind of review that I taught my D to avoid.
The rating itself I don’t care. Many great professors get low rating from resentful students due to high demand and harsh grading. But they don’t get these kind of individual reviews.
It will be an unwise decision to put him in tenure if students aren’t going to take his courses other than for an easy A.
Overall Quality 2.6
Excepts from reviews;
“extremely disorganized. He sometimes won’t even post the homework until the night before it is due.”
“He has no business being a teacher and he is very unorganized. He is an easy grader but his assignments are stupid.”
“He is a very funny professor and willing to help individually. He is a great professor to get to know outside of class in order to use as a resource. His tests were very easy!”
“Final project but no final. Large part of grade depends on class participation.”
“Not horrible, but could use a lot of improvement. A hard grader, expects A LOT out of you. The class itself is a bit dull. I will probably never take a class with this professor again.”
There are only 7 reviews on the ratemyprofessor website. I think the sample is too small to be useful. My conjecture is that his teaching is probably still ok. Otherwise, the university committee at a teaching college is unlikely to go along with the department’s decision.