He Is Not One of Them

Former House Speaker and Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich visited a local college in Frederick, Maryland the day before the GOP Primary.

The once upon a time History and Geography professor of another small college was not welcomed on campus of the small liberal arts college. Some professors went on record to air their disagreement and anger to hosting the public event. Some led demonstrations inside and out of the auditorium when Newt was giving the talk.

Had Newt granted tenure in 1978, we probably wouldn't be seeing any of these. However, it is clear that birds of a feather flock together.

Tenure System no Scapegoat of the Decline of Higher Education in the US

There was a story in a US University. A senior professor, who was not satisfied with performance of a junior female professor, told her that she would not be granted tenure as long as he sat on the personnel board, unless she went to bed with him. The pissed-off junior professor went to the school administrators, where she was given the advice to turn in physical evidence. So she went back to the old man, and asked him to write down his threat. The senior professor without hesitation wrote it down. The school administrators then discussed possibly to terminate old man's tenure. However, school lawyers stopped them, 'We can't do that because there had been worse offenses in the history while the accused were allowed to keep tenure. If the school act this time, it will be the base for a lawsuit.'

A tenured professor is practically untouchable. In a recent incident, many scholars and colleagues of Law professor John Yoo of UC Berkeley believed he crossed the ethics bottom line when he gave legal advice to the Bush Administration that torture was legal. Many believed Yoo did it to please his employer while knowingly misinterpreted law as White House Legal Council. Consequently, many innocent persons suffered, and the image of US government was tarnished. However, the school came to the conclusion that the alleged offense did not amount to the level of tenure termination.

Rights and privileges associated to tenure may brings a clue on the motivation behind one Alabama professor Amy Bishop gunned down 5 of her colleagues in a heated discussion when informed her tenure application was denied.

Problem of the US's higher education could be traced deeper than the tenure layer, which was illustrated in an Ohio University case.

An assistant professor was accused of harassment, physical intimidation and professional retaliation against his fellow professors. A faculty ethics committee found the professor guilty of 6 accounts of charges, which were well documented with evidence and third party testimony. His tenure application passed narrowly in the department, but was denied on both School and College levels. Still Ohio University granted him tenure.

Berkeley Defends Torture

Christopher Edley Jr., the Dean of the Berkeley School of Law defends John Yoo's employment by saying, 'a tenured professor can be dismissed only for "commission of a criminal act which has led to conviction in a court of law and which clearly demonstrated unfitness to continue as a member of the faculty."'.

Dean Edley's arguments are wrong.

John Yoo as a lawyer was the hired gun for the Bush administration in writing up the CYA memos for the DoJ in which he redefined the torture as used in war.

Had the US lost the war, Yoo would have been tried and executed as a war criminal. Yoo got away from the international court not because he was innocent, but because he put the United States as shield. Consequently the image of the United States was permanently ruined. Many people suffered, and some died. More will suffer and die as a result. John Yoo knowingly and consciously performed this as a cheap hired gun for then DoJ leaders, consciously at the cost of the Country. The act and the harm it caused mounted to the level of treason.

In addition, Yoo is not suitable for continuing teaching at any capacity. As Scott Horton of Columbia Law School wrote, '.. Lawyers who act on the public stage can have an enormous impact on their society and the world around them....can also be vessels of horrendous injustice and oppression. Indeed they can formant and advance a criminal design....a generation of Berkeley grads to think that writing up CYA memos for political friends is an honorable and proper thing -- or at least something you can get away with, suffering no negative repercussions?...do little credit to the students and faculty at Boalt Hall.

Timothy Burke of Swarthmore College wrote, '.. Shouldn't this kind of approach to knowledge and scholarship disqualify someone for an academic post?'

Koreans are known for cruelty in war time. Civil protests in Korean constantly have items such as machetes, rocks and Molotov cocktails involved. Although Korean military hadn't won a battle in a long time, their army fought along the Japanese Imperial Army and the US army committed the most despicable war crimes against civilian in WWII as well as the Vietnam War.

Tenured Professors Let Go in a Mass Lay Off

70 faculty, including tenured professors were let go by the Clark Atlanta University, a Historically Black College, in the middle of Spring semester. The bland invasion to the tenure system did not raise eyebrow of many college professors in the US, although the AAUP had launched an investigation. The consent seems to be a minority institution could get away from any bazaar things it did, as long as the act to be quarantined within the HBCU circle.

The black community, including many of CAU's current students and alumni, defended the administration's act as an ordinary cost-saving measure in the corporate America. However, they failed to realize the difference between a college and an ordinary business corporation.

At a bad time everybody suffers, including educators. However, for a country and a community, investing in education is the way of getting out of adversities; for an education institution in trouble, the moral of their teaching faculty is key to make a turn around.

Many universities and colleges had adopted severe measures to battle the economy, a few involves staff and faculty cut. In most cases, any reduction in teaching force were conducted in a cautious approach, with consultation to faculty body on guidelines laid out by faculty handbook and AAUP advisory.

Teaching is a special occupation. An individual can be angry or sorrow but still be able to write a computer program, or fasten a screw. A teacher can't teach effectively in a demoralized environment, even if he tried. Managing a higher education institution requires a different skill set than, say, managing a regular business comprised of regular workforce.

Assuming a substitute teacher can be hired in the middle of semester to teach any course is insane. Each professor has its own specialty and comfort zone of knowledge. Usually the more depth it goes, the narrower it gets. A teacher can teach a course strictly by the scope of a textbook, or he can give students his own understanding and opinions. There are difference in day and night between the two in terms of teaching effectiveness. Ignoring this shows the total disregard of students interest by the administration. Who would send their kids to such a place?

The reduction of faculty and perhaps even further reduction in addition to salary cut may be necessary for the Clark-Atlanta University's very survival. We would not know without insight knowledge on its financial status. On the face, it is fish though. A decline of enrollment from 4300 in the Fall to 4100 in the Spring is typical in every college and university. Fall semester enrollment is always larger than Spring. The second reason cited by the CAU, fund raising campaigns, is also skeptical because the university is mostly tuition driven. There may be blunders and fumbles in financial management that the university is not willing to tell. Either way, the problem is not what must be done, the problem is how was it handled. The particular way the current administration is handling the situation is commiting an insitutional suicide. The administrators may get a golden parashute, but the students would be left in sorrow.

A minority-serving institution like CAU can not survive in a long run on hope of remaining it's reliance on non-mainstream feeding of incoming students. If the administraion counts on the traidtional wisdom that 'no matter what black students will come and federal government will assist', they are making a wrong bet against the historic trend. CAU need to prove it is a place for quality education regardless of race profile. Unfortunately, the current admininstration is doing the opposite.

Colin Power reported of telling then President Bush on invading Iraq, 'Sir, once you break it, you own it'. A higher education insitituion, a traditional primary black college Clark Atlanta University is an even more delicate and fragile system then a pottery barn. It is time to count the loss and clear up the mess. The administration who broke it, should be sued for the loss of faculty, college as well as students affected.