Dilemma

My classmates and I were recently hit with bad news: one of our favorite professors is not being rehired next semester. In light of the administration's decision to fire her, we have begun a petition and a letter-writing campaign to express our feelings about the situation. I am relaying this information to you in support of my my professor, to show an example of passionate teaching and to let you know what you can do if anything like this happens at your school.

As a consequence of our combined experiences with this professor, my classmates and I believe her to be the embodiment of the mission statement of our school and feel that it would be doing a huge disservice to all involved if she was terminated.

I myself have taken two classes with this professor as a part of my Human Development major. In last year’s class, she inspired us to put aside our differences and learn about each other and ourselves. She asked us to view ourselves as a part of a whole instead of as a male or female, education student or business student, football player or football fan. Our class explored the rampant injustices in the United States, pondering its causes, coming up with ways to be “Agents of Change!”, and then rallied to support those in need. We ended our thought-provoking semester by committing ourselves to a number of different service projects, including working at a soup kitchen and participating in the Walk for Hunger. Intense discussion and dialogue throughout the semester paired with the actual service we completed helped elevate our knowledge about our world to a new level; it helped shape us into more emotionally intelligent and complete individuals.

This year in her class, which has quickly become one of my favorite classes ever, this professor utilized small group discussion and penetrating questioning to force us to ask ourselves the hard questions regarding tough subjects such as drug and alcohol use, intimate relationships, family dynamics, divorce, racism and self-actualization. It was through her kind demeanor and personal openness that our class became like a family and the classroom a comfortable place where we could go to share our thoughts and ideas. This class and its accompanying assignments have allowed me to learn more about myself and my place in the world than any other class. I would recommend this class for everyone, since interpersonal relationships apply to everyone.

The rumor that is being passed around regarding the reason for the dismissal states that her classes are not “hard enough.” I ask you to define hard. If by hard, one means that there are a number of lengthy papers requiring time, effort, honesty and introspection, her classes have them. If by hard, one means that students are forced to face the unpleasant truth about the nation they live in and the future they face, her classes include that as well. If by hard, one means that there are often emotional discussions leading to the answering of difficult questions about humanity, with students relaying personal information about themselves and connecting to their fellow classmates, you will find this in this professor’s classes. However, if by hard, one means the type of class that normally occurs in a college school of business, you are out of luck. These classes do not employ calculus (unless you are referring to statistics about divorce and poverty), economics (unless you mean the economics faced by the poor), business (unless you mean learning about conspiratorial corporations such as Wal-Mart), or political science (unless you mean writing letters to our local politicians to jumpstart change). But, by no means do we feel that the classes taken by education students have to be compared in terms of difficulty to those taken by the business and economics majors. If we wanted classes that focus on just getting ahead, we would have applied somewhere else. We understand that we are being prepared for different paths in life, and would therefore hope that the components of our classes would differ. Although our courses, goals and professors are different, they are just as important to us, and the caliber is the same.

Furthermore, it is an insult to us as education students, who pride ourselves on the depth of our coursework with a focus on justly forming the entire person, that the opinions of a few students from the business school would indefinitely impact the remainder of our time here. Instead, we would hope that those of us that have been here longer and will graduate as a member of the Lynch School family would have our opinions heard first. The rest of us feel that we were not given any chance to refute the statements made by a small minority of students. This professor was also never given a chance to change. Many of us have already signed up for her courses for next semester, looking forward to being in a safe and fun environment where we can learn and grow together; taking this option away from us is extremely disappointing and confusing.

Basically, we hope that this petition acts as a means toward more of a dialogue between students and administration. The choices made by our superiors affect us, as well as the quality of education we receive. If this professor is let go, we will lose a wonderfully committed, highly intelligent, compassionate individual whose first priority has always been her students and their futures.

I will keep you posted as things develop.