2008 Woodie Awards
Branch's tenure appeal denied
Differences of opinion persist
Dylan Grayson
Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: News
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The Academic Affairs Committee of the board of trustees concluded that assistant professor of English Eleanor Branch's tenure case contained no procedural violations.
"It is notable that consensus was achieved at each level of decision making," said the college's official response. "(This is) the final appeal available to Eleanor Branch and the end of a College process that began in November 2005 and has lasted more than a year."
The Faculty Affairs Committee denied Eleanor Branch tenure in March 2006. When a faculty appeal failed to overturn the decision, Branch appealed to college president Kent Chabotar with the complaint that Guilford's tenure process leaves room for racial bias to enter decisions. "My perception of myself as a black person is not in line with how people perceived I should be as a black person," Branch said.
Chabotar hired civil rights attorney, Julius Chambers, to investigate Branch's charge, a move that the tenure process did not require. Chambers concluded racial bias had not played a legal or deciding factor in Branch's case. However, Branch and others have said Chambers also called Guilford's tenure process "broken."
"The decision not to award tenure (to Branch) resulted from a process that incorporated Chambers' advice," vice-president for academic affairs and academic dean, Adrienne Israel, wrote in a March 16 letter in The Guilfordian. "The college community should be reassured that a noted civil rights expert reviewed the process and concluded that the decision not to recommend tenure was not racially motivated."
Based on Chambers' report, Chabotar denied Branch's appeal. So, Branch took her appeal to the Academic Affairs Committee of the board of trustees. Branch's hearing with the trustees ended in January when they interviewed her briefly.
"It was a 10-minute hearing but a hearing nonetheless," Branch said. "At the end of it, they thanked me for being 'articulate and dignified.'"
Assistant professor of philosophy, Lisa McLeod, said, "Guilford is losing someone with the ability to make us all think harder about racism and other forms of oppression, in teaching and in our curriculum, and who was really up on current scholarship about all this stuff."
"It is notable that consensus was achieved at each level of decision making," said the college's official response. "(This is) the final appeal available to Eleanor Branch and the end of a College process that began in November 2005 and has lasted more than a year."
The Faculty Affairs Committee denied Eleanor Branch tenure in March 2006. When a faculty appeal failed to overturn the decision, Branch appealed to college president Kent Chabotar with the complaint that Guilford's tenure process leaves room for racial bias to enter decisions. "My perception of myself as a black person is not in line with how people perceived I should be as a black person," Branch said.
Chabotar hired civil rights attorney, Julius Chambers, to investigate Branch's charge, a move that the tenure process did not require. Chambers concluded racial bias had not played a legal or deciding factor in Branch's case. However, Branch and others have said Chambers also called Guilford's tenure process "broken."
"The decision not to award tenure (to Branch) resulted from a process that incorporated Chambers' advice," vice-president for academic affairs and academic dean, Adrienne Israel, wrote in a March 16 letter in The Guilfordian. "The college community should be reassured that a noted civil rights expert reviewed the process and concluded that the decision not to recommend tenure was not racially motivated."
Based on Chambers' report, Chabotar denied Branch's appeal. So, Branch took her appeal to the Academic Affairs Committee of the board of trustees. Branch's hearing with the trustees ended in January when they interviewed her briefly.
"It was a 10-minute hearing but a hearing nonetheless," Branch said. "At the end of it, they thanked me for being 'articulate and dignified.'"
Assistant professor of philosophy, Lisa McLeod, said, "Guilford is losing someone with the ability to make us all think harder about racism and other forms of oppression, in teaching and in our curriculum, and who was really up on current scholarship about all this stuff."
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