NEWS

On Thursday, March 3, the acting chair of the philosophy department told three professors that their contracts wouldn’t be renewed.

“The university’s allocation of resources leaves the department with funds only for the six tenured members of the department,” Jeffrey Morton wrote in an e-mail with no subject line. The letter was addressed to the entire department.

Instructor Andrew Dobson, adjunct professor Henry Ruf and adjunct professor Daniel Marcele will finish out the semester and not be rehired.

Dobson said the announcement means the department will have to make tough decisions for the fall 2011 semester.

“The ability to teach the required courses has steadily decreased — now it’s reached crisis point,” he said, and added that either the remaining professors would all teach a lot of classes, or “they [would] collapse all the small classes into very large sections.”

Eminent Scholar Lester Embree, Ph.D., said non-tenured employees like Dobson, Ruf and Marcele cannot expect to be rehired, as it’s not guaranteed.

“In a sense, they weren’t fired,” he said. “It wasn’t like a regular job with a contract or tenure, where they would go on teaching year after year.”

Embree added that losing the three professors is also losing “the capacity to teach 8 to 10 courses next semester.”

Morton’s e-mail, Embree claimed, was not of his own devices.

“Morton is only telling what he’s told — the decision is made by [Dean Manjunath] Pendakur and [Provost Diane] Alperin.”

Morton volunteered to head the department last year when then-chair Clevis Headley resigned two weeks after a lawsuit was filed that involved him. His letter ends, “[Dean Pendakur] made it clear that he is available to meet with any members of the department to discuss this matter.”

The UP will keep you informed on future developments as they arise.