Dr. Cornel West Calls Out Harvard University’s ‘Spiritual Rot’ in His Resignation Letter
Dr. Cornel West. the philosopher, political activist, and public intellectual has accused Harvard of disrespectful treatment and hinted at discrimination.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
Politics in Academia and the Tenure Case of Nikole Hannah-Jones
Day after the UNC system's board of trustees reversed itself and approved her tenure, Nikole Hannah-Jones did, in my view, the right thing: decline UNC offer.
Hannah-Jones is not the only Black academic who was
denied tenure in the last few months alone. Harvard University also denied Dr.
Cornel West tenure. What is striking about this case is the fact that Dr. West had
a tenured position at Harvard before. He left his tenured position in 2002
after then Harvard president, Lawrence Summers, depreciated his “scholarship,
his commitment to teaching, and his political advocacy.” It should be noted
that this is the same Summers who argued that women are underrepresented in the
sciences not because of historical discrimination, but because women underperform
in math and sciences because of biological difference when compared to men.
We must consider these cases in the context of academic
positions and the power structure within the system. First, it should be noted
that almost three-quarters of all US faculty positions are off the tenure track
and more universities are moving to limit tenure-track positions and replace
them with contract laborers. Second, as the US Department of Education data on
the makeup and salaries of faculty members in higher education show, Black
persons and people of color are severely underrepresented and underpaid
compared to white persons. In fact, most cases of tenure-denial or notices to
that potentiality in the last 30 years have impacted people of color and rarely
impacted white persons, especially white men.
Nikole Hannah-Jones will not be the last Black
person who will face discrimination. The system as is will likely produce the
same outcomes. It was the right decision to fight the denial and it was the
right decision to decline the offer after the denial. The series of events
underscored the corrupt nature and highly politicized processes in academia.
Had Hannah-Jones accepted tenure after she was denied it, it would perpetuate
the idea that the system works: it was an error that was fixed, and the system
works since Hannah-Jones eventually received tenure. That is not true. The decision
was reversed only because of public pressure and only because of the stature of
Nikole Hannah-Jones. Anyone else who deserve tenure but lacks the stature,
standing, and connections of Nikole Hannah-Jones, but happens to be a person of
color will not be able to force a university to reverse itself.
Changing the system will require acts of courage
from the persons who experience discrimination and systemic exclusion to refuse
to legitimize the system as is, expose the social groups who benefit from it,
and reveal the actors who designed it.
Monday, June 21, 2021
UNC Journalism School Tried To Give Nikole Hannah-Jones Tenure. A Top Donor Objected
On paper, The New York Times's Nikole Hannah-Jones is a dream hire for the journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She won a MacArthur "genius grant" for her reporting on the persistence of segregation in American life. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her essay accompanying "The 1619 Project," a New York Times Magazine initiative she conceived on the legacy of slavery in the U.S. And Hannah-Jones earned a master's degree from the school itself, in 2003.
Yet the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees declined to act upon her proposed appointment. That tenure proposal ran aground on race, politics, and, perhaps surprisingly, on a clash between diverging views of journalism.
The opposing view has been embodied by Walter Hussman, the 1968 UNC journalism graduate whose name has graced the school since he made a $25 million pledge. Longtime publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Hussman has shared his opposition to Hannah-Jones' appointment with the journalism school dean, several university administrators, and, reportedly, two members of the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees.
Sunday, May 16, 2021
University of California system will no longer consider SAT, ACT scores in admissions process
Friday’s settlement, which was officially approved by the UC Board of Regents Thursday, also states that the university system will pay more than $1.2 million to the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The settlement also states that should UC choose to use an alternative exam during the admissions process in the future, it “will consider access for students with disabilities in the design and implementation of any such exam.”
Amanda Savage, one of the lawyers representing the students in the lawsuit, told the Times that the settlement “ensures that the university will not revert to its planned use of the SAT and ACT — which its own regents have admitted are racist metrics.”
source:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/553731-university-of-california-system-will-no-longer-consider-sat-act-scores
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