Students protest professor being denied tenure
Engineering students at Utah State University put up protest signs in support of professor Elgin Anderson on Tuesday, when they found out he was not receiving tenure from the university.
Signs that read “Fight for Anderson,” can be seen posted around the Engineering Building. Attached to the posters are lists of tenure credentials engineering students feel Anderson has fulfilled.
Anderson is one of two professors who applied for tenure/promotion this year and were denied, according to the university’s Tenure and Promotion Summary Sheet. Thirty-three professors achieved tenure.
“Tenure, in education, is a guarantee of the permanence of a college or university teacher’s position, warded upon successful completion of a probationary period, usually seven years. Tenure is designed to make a teaching career more attractive by providing job security,” according to the USU Policy on Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility, found at www.personnel.usu.edu/policy/405.htm.
Chris Fawson, vice provost of Academic and International Affairs, said tenure is usually decided on three specific things: teaching, research and service to one’s specific department and USU.
Professors who apply for tenure are recommended and evaluated by their department heads, deans and a tenure promotion committee that is unique to the individual. From there, they go to the provost, the president, then finally to the USU Board of Trustees.
A professor has a period of six years to prove his qualifications for tenure. If the professor does not receive tenure in his sixth year at the university, then he has a seventh year, called a transitional year, to help him find establishment somewhere else, Fawson said.
Once professors achieve tenure, they are not free from constant evaluation, Fawson said. The university wants to ensure it has the best-qualified professors it can possibly have, he said.
But some students think the qualified professors are those who haven’t been given tenure.
Jerome Jenkins, a mechanical engineering graduate student, said there is an appeal process a professor can go through when denied tenure and hopes Anderson will do this.
Ben Case, a graduate student majoring in engineering, said, “This will leave a huge black mark on professor Anderson’s career. How can he expect to teach again?”
Jenkins and many other engineering students have decided to write a letter to the provost and president expressing their opinion on the subject. More than 100 students have signed a petition opposing Anderson’s tenure rejection, Jenkins said. This is about one-third of the mechanical engineering department.
“There is no doubt in my mind Anderson deserves tenure. I can’t just sit by and do nothing when something like this happens,” Jenkins said.
According to the flier of credentials for the professor, “[Anderson] has lobbied for the reconstruction of the USU LS Wind Tunnel that is currently operating as a professional research facility, providing jobs for USU students working with private and military contractors.”
Jenkins said Anderson has received letters of support, recommending the tenure advisory committee, the department head and the dean of Engineering grant him tenure and a promotion. He also said Anderson has spent many hours advising students in student-engineering societies.
Knowing the reasoning behind why Anderson was denied tenure would help justify the situation, Jenkins said.
The Utah Statesman was unable to reach other parties involved in Anderson’s case by deadline and regrets it will not be able to follow the story, since this is its last issue of the school year.
-alwhite@cc.usu.edu