BY CORINNE WEISGERBER
The following remarks were presented on Saturday, June 15, at the AAUP’s 105th annual meeting, which voted to place St. Edward’s University on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations. You can read the report of the AAUP’s investigating committee here.
Corinne Weisgerber speaking at the AAUP annual meeting.
I stand here today to express my gratitude to the AAUP for granting me an opportunity to reclaim my voice, a voice which has been silent since I was terminated from my tenured position at St. Edward’s University in 2018.
As a tenured professor with 11 years of service, I thought that I had earned a voice. Apparently, I was wrong.
I believed our Faculty Manual when it said that the granting of tenure comes with a responsibility to provide leadership and participate in university governance.
So I felt it my responsibility to help organize a local AAUP chapter after a number of faculty members were denied tenure in 2012.
I believed that as a tenured professor I had a right to use my voice to advocate for better governance. Instead I was terminated, accused of “disrespect and disregard of the university’s mission and goals.” I thought academic freedom was central to a university’s mission and goals, and I am proud to continue using my voice to stand for that principle.
My story would have ended with my termination had it not been for the AAUP. I might have simply disappeared from campus overnight. I want to thank my local AAUP, the Texas AAUP and you all – the national AAUP – for making sure that didn’t happen. I especially want to thank the investigating team for their hard work and the thoughtful report they produced. I sincerely hope it will make a difference for my colleagues still at St. Edward’s. I also want to thank the AAUP Foundation for providing support at a time when both my and my husband’s livelihoods were shattered on the same day. Lastly I want to thank our lawyer Holt Lackey for providing guidance throughout this ordeal.
I cried a lot in the months that followed our termination and I still do. But I cried tears of joy when I found out that Committee A had authorized an investigation. I am well aware that I was terminated in a very privileged manner. How many people have an investigating team fly into town from all over the US after they were terminated? How many people receive grants to help them keep their heads above water after they lost their jobs? I am beyond grateful to the AAUP for those kind gestures of support.
The report created for Committee A does a thorough job describing the current climate and problems at St. Edward’s University. What it doesn’t do – and I didn’t expect it to do – is describe the emotional toll this has taken on my husband and me. I am particularly hurt by the suggestion that I was uncollegial.
I deeply cared for my colleagues. I spent days making a quilt for a sick colleague. I visited them in the hospital and stood next to another colleague as she was dying. Yet, I have been accused of “bullying behavior and intimidation.”
I checked in on my colleagues when their parents fell ill and I offered to cover their classes. I had my colleagues over for game nights and parties. I cooked and baked for them. I went on vacation with them. Yet, I have been accused of “bullying behavior and intimidation.”
I freely shared my syllabi and course materials with them. I advocated for their classes and contract renewals. I helped organize an AAUP chapter to champion my colleagues and their rights. Yet, I have been accused of “bullying behavior and intimidation.”
In a way it seems appropriate that I now work at a Lutheran institution. I am not trying to compare myself to Luther but I do find some poetic meaning and inspiration in his example. No, I didn’t write 95 theses condemning the practices of the St. Edward’s administration. I didn’t even nail the AAUP report to the red doors of the Main Building! But I did use my voice to stand for the right as I saw the right. So I will close by using my voice to echo his: Here I stand, I can do no other.
Corinne Weisgerber is an associate professor of communication at Concordia University.
See additional remarks from Saturday’s meeting by Shannan H. Butler.
This issue doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the AAUP, per se. It has to do with a number of legal rights and opportunities available in civil and common law, possibly others including constitutional and criminal. But most significantly, this story, very common in commercial and other business corporations, and in government, underscores why professors (and students) should always have their lawyer’s business card in their front pocket, and have one (or a team) on-call at all times. Indeed, the establishment of a on-site 24/7 legal staff that is grounded in the art of advocacy (somewhat a legal rarity), retained and fully briefed ex ante, is a wise investment, given the increasingly ideologically radicalized, constitutionally rogue or simply contractually misguided university administration. The AAUP should know this, but perhaps has a conflict of interest? Moreover, a professor, or student, should never just walk into such a meeting, or into a meeting that is obviously set up as entrapment. One must immediately exit the room (if you even respond to the request), call your lawyer, and invoke that right of representation. If you insist on staying (if you were naive enough to even walk in), you only have one word to articulate: “lawyer.” This will freeze the entrapment, while documenting and memorializing its existence, which can also be easily recorded visually and aurally. Was it Adorno that said one’s only failure is to surrender those interests, goals and rights you possess? I’m not giving anyone legal advice; it is merely a communication of facts. Universities regularly break the law, often but not always in an unintended manner, occasionally out of ignorance and commercial naivety. Stand up and push back: The morally infirm will always retreat when actively confronted. In the meantime, moral self-consciousness is ever elusive. Kant on Conscience? With Regards.
Corrine, Shannan, and Katie were not well treated at St. Edward’s University. Academic Freedom and Faculty Governance do not truly exist at the institution. The administration has adopted a corporate money making model that views faculty as nuisances and children who should be seen, but not heard. Most faculty are fearful for their jobs. Curriculum changes are manufactured by the administration based on number of students in the classes. Disagreeing with the administration results in program cuts and dropping majors, courses, and faculty. Permanent faculty are replaced by contingency faculty who are in a more tenuous position.
You and other Commentors may appreciate an Opinion I wrote for the UChicago GSU (graduate student union) concerning their recent strike,and the poor management by administration that in my view is causal. I think it addresses some of your criticisms: https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2019/6/7/university-goes-corporate/
A great many people, especially those in power, like administrators and executives, are driven by and protect their job and social status and their possessions at almost any cost. When they feel threatened, they usually lurch out and attack—just like animals. This is what many executives do to their subordinates (and unions), like here. Their nice suits and clever words don’t fool me. Not an iota of decency is present. These leaders are primitive and selfish, only driven to protect their own needs and turf. Disgusting.
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2019/6/7/university-goes-corporate/
Corinne, I can’t use my real name because I am in the middle of a similar situation, unfortunately in a Lutheran university. What is different is that I am NTT (long-term), low-income, and already have exhausted funds for legal help. AAUP has stepped up, and I want to join you in thanking them. I, too, have advocated for better governance for a very long time, and I too am the bad actor. Do you know the Pee-wee Herman line about “I know you are, but what am I?” This seems to be happening all over as faculty stand up for fair treatment and academic freedom. We are the ones who get surgically excised. Yes, it does hurt, but we are in a long fight for our noble profession. When you expect it, it hurts less. I am sending you a cyber-hug in solidarity. We are not alone, and AAUP has responded to the call to arms. Keep up the good fight.
Pingback: Terminated Professor Calls for Holding St. Edward’s University to Its True Mission | ACADEME BLOG
I find your stance against St. Edward’s admirable. Most wrongfully terminated tenured faculty go way in the dark and never surface in the procession again. I too was a tenured faculty member for 12 years and was wrongfully terminated for the same type of reasons but in my case I spoke up about an unethical non tenured professor that cancelled classes routinely, failed to grade papers and refused to teach the students because he was incompetent. Instead of firing him at will employee who had 100s of student complaints filed against him within the college and with middle states, the board members and local politicians who all should have investigated his routine cancelling of classes and failing to provide the requisite hours of instruction they fired me the senior tenured professor. I sued them for breach of tenure contract. 6 years later and 1000s of dollars spent on legal fees the lawsuit ended and I retired from college teaching for good. I am a lawyer as well and what I saw in academia was disgusting tenure means nothing colleges are real good at denying it but are terrible about honoring it. College administrators by and large base every decision on who they like personally and women and minorities are routinely picked on. College administrators have no accountability and they get free legal services to fight wrongs they did while the lone wronged professor is out on a limb using their money to enforce what tenure affords. Tenure means nothing at least in the legal professor the sharks show themselves from day one but in academia they lay and wait. The best news was you stood up and have resurfaced back in the profession…. this is a huge win. AAUP helped provide the expert witness in my case who could explain what tenure is and what it means ….judges lawyers and lay society hate it because yes it is a job guarantee I got my expert from University of Delaware and his testimony sunk the case for my college. AAUP needs to put these experts on s list get their testimonies from prior cases and have them ready for these type of fights …the breach of a tenure contract all comes down to having an expert who can explain what grounds a tenure professor can be fired for not the grounds these colleges rely on which amount to personality conflicts and college administrators who don’t like you. Yeah one for the faculty!!!!
Pingback: University placed on Censure List following lawsuits from three former professors | Hilltop Views