[News] Fight to overturn the denial of tenure for Professors Norman Finkelstein and Mehrene Larudee

[Anti-Imperialist News]

June 14th, 2007

http://www.finkelgate.com/


UPDATE!!!

Media Contact: Kathryn Weber
(312) 218-0626
finkelgate at gmail.com
Media Advisory
For Press Event: 14 June 2007, ongoing
Place: DePaul University Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., 
Chicago, IL 60614


Students Threatened with Expulsion for Sit-In at DePaul University


TOLD TO "STAY AS LONG AS YOU WANT," THEN DRIVEN OUT BY SECURITY 
FACULTY AND ALUMNI THREATENED WITH ARREST AND CHICAGO PD

The fight for academic freedom continued at DePaul University in 
Chicago on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 as the fight to overturn the 
denial of tenure for Professors Norman Finkelstein and Mehrene 
Larudee intensified. DePaul students responded immediately to DePaul 
University President Fr. Holtschneider's decision to deny their 
professors tenure, occupying a meeting room across from the 
Presidents office at 8:30 a.m., Monday, June 11. The President met 
with the students that afternoon and informed them that he was 
unwilling to change his mind or his decision, but that they could 
stay as long as they wanted. He also informed the students that he 
did not recognize the faculty's right to appeal and declared that the 
faculty had no "structural authority" to change the president's 
decisions on tenure.

There was a meeting of the University's Faculty Council on Wednesday, 
June 13, at the Loop Campus where a 27-3 vote called for an appeal to 
be made on behalf of both professors citing "violations of academic 
freedom" and procedural problems in the tenure process.

After three days and two nights of sitting-in, the students were 
driven from the room at 5:00 p.m. Wednesday. They were instructed by 
DePaul University's Dean of Students, Greg MacVarish, to vacate the 
room. The students refused and asked for a written statement 
indicating 1) What the students were required to do, 2) Why the 
students had to do this, and 3) What the consequences would be if the 
students did not obey. After officials refused to provide a statement 
the Dean of Students, who was accompanied by Public Safety officers, 
instructed the students and faculty to leave the building. When the 
students asked what the consequences would be for remaining they were 
told "to consult the student handbook for rights and 
responsibilities," which includes a provision for expulsion. Faculty 
and alumni present were threatened with arrest by the Chicago Police 
Department.
Current status and upcoming plans:

Students are now occupying the Lincoln Park Campus Student Center in 
support of academic freedom and tenure for both Professors 
Finkelstein and Larudee. There is a hearing for the Faculty 
Governance Council Thursday from 3-5pm in which more appeal hearings 
will be heard and other decisive actions will be taken as to what can 
be done next from the faculty perspective. Students plan on showing 
their support during this hearing.
Further background information:

The tenure process takes place in four stages: the candidate's 
Department, then College, then to the University Board on Tenure and 
Promotion, and finally to the President of the University. At the 
College level, the Dean may issue a report with his own 
recommendation on the candidate alongside the department and College 
Personnel Committee reports. At the University level, the Provost is 
responsible for passing the previous recommendations along to the President.

Dr. Larudee received unanimous support from both the International 
Studies Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Dr. 
Finkelstein received a 9-3 vote department vote and a unanimous vote 
in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Dean Suchar of the 
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recommended Dr. Larudee, who 
will serve as the Chair of International Studies next year, and 
issued a report against recommending Dr. Finkelstein for tenure. The 
University Board on Tenure and Promotion (UBTP) voted to deny both 
professors tenure, which the University President, Fr. Dennis 
Holtschneider upheld. When tenure is denied, in essence the 
candidates are fired, effective one year from the tenure decision.

The President is given the authority to change a tenure decision in 
rare circumstances, which the students feel clearly applies in a case 
in which there was heavy support for the candidates from the faculty 
that knows them best. Further, the Faculty Handbook of DePaul 
University states that dismissal, which occurs as a result of tenure 
denial, may be appealed in case of abuse of academic freedom or when 
there has been a violation of procedure.

The students maintain that both of these requirements for appeal have 
been met. The decision to deny Professor Mehrene Larudee tenure seems 
based wholly on her support of Prof. Finkelstein. She was not given a 
copy of the UBTP vote or an opportunity to respond before the 
President's review, which is a violation of the tenure procedure. 
Professor Finkelstein has been maligned for scholarship which has 
been evaluated and praised by two outside reviewers, nine (out of 
twelve) of his tenured fellow Political Science Department 
colleagues, leading experts in the field in which he works, and the 
peer reviewers of the university presses through which his books have 
been published. He was also not given a copy of the UBTP vote. In 
addition, a document was submitted at the departmental level , which 
the Dean, the Provost, and the President all refused to include in 
their deliberations or distribute to the College or University levels.




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