2008 Woodie Awards
After hearing, struggle ends
By: Dave Herrera
Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: Campus
Carlos Adams, the former ethnic studies instructor who was denied a new contract last April and has fought for his job since, lost his appeal to the Faculty Senate last week and says he doesn't plan to take further action.
Adams received the decision from the Committee on Faculty Personnel and Conciliation one week ago. His hearing was held before spring break.
In an interview, Adams said he was resigned to the fact that "my time at Bowling Green is over."
"Next is moving on, trying to find a place that will hire me as a professor," Adams said.
Last week's decision closed a nine-month struggle for Adams, his supporters and the University.
The ethnic studies department last April told Adams, who had applied for a new instructor contract, he would not be rehired for this school year.
Hundreds of students, faculty and community members signed a petition criticizing the decision within weeks.
They created the "Justice for Carlos Adams at BGSU" committee, which continually worked on Adams' behalf.
Adams and the "Justice" committee argue Adams could not have received fair treatment because, among other reasons, he opposed the 2006 hiring of Timothy Messer-Kruse, the ethnic studies chair.
They say Adams was persecuted within the department for his views.
In an e-mail, Messer-Kruse declined to comment on the decision.
Last June the "Justice" committee held a vocal protest on campus before marching into that day's University Board of Trustees meeting.
That day they met with College of Arts and Sciences Dean Don Nieman and Mark Gromko, then interim provost, for more than an hour of intense discussion, but remained unsatisfied with the administrators' responses.
Adams said the hearing didn't go as well as he had planned.
"I was aware the minute the hearing was over we had lost," Adams said. "We didn't present our case effectively enough."
But he was grateful for the support he received in the last several months, saying it proved "I am a man of integrity ... and I am a good teacher."
"I appreciate, I truly appreciate, all the support I received from all the people on this campus," Adams said.
He said he focused too much in the hearing on questioning whether he was given due process in the rehiring process and not enough on his argument that his academic qualifications were passed over.
Indeed, the "Justice" committee frequently argued that the Department of Ethnic Studies ignored scores of glowing student evaluations when they declined to offer Adams a new contract.
An unsigned minority opinion from the hearing committee agreed.
"It is of concern to the committee that the five successful candidates' record of teaching success is highlighted in the memo to the dean recommending their hire, but nothing is mentioned about Dr. Adams' strong credentials in this area," the opinion says.
Errol Lam, an emeritus faculty and head of the committee, said he had been optimistic about the hearing.
Lam said the fact that some members of the grievance board dissented from the decision gave him some conciliation.
"I give credit ... to the hundreds who signed that petition," he said. "No one knows who they are, no one talks about the petition, but they were not phantom people who came to that petition to sign it."
Lam said the future of the committee was in doubt, but that the case reflected a need for students to remain involved in what happens at the University.
"Students are not politically conscious," he said. "They're not. They're totally unconscious, they're almost dead."
"When you go to the classroom, you would normally assume that the teacher in there is very good, but I think [the University] didn't care," Lam said.
- Read the report here.
- Read the minority report here.
Adams received the decision from the Committee on Faculty Personnel and Conciliation one week ago. His hearing was held before spring break.
In an interview, Adams said he was resigned to the fact that "my time at Bowling Green is over."
"Next is moving on, trying to find a place that will hire me as a professor," Adams said.
Last week's decision closed a nine-month struggle for Adams, his supporters and the University.
The ethnic studies department last April told Adams, who had applied for a new instructor contract, he would not be rehired for this school year.
Hundreds of students, faculty and community members signed a petition criticizing the decision within weeks.
They created the "Justice for Carlos Adams at BGSU" committee, which continually worked on Adams' behalf.
Adams and the "Justice" committee argue Adams could not have received fair treatment because, among other reasons, he opposed the 2006 hiring of Timothy Messer-Kruse, the ethnic studies chair.
They say Adams was persecuted within the department for his views.
In an e-mail, Messer-Kruse declined to comment on the decision.
Last June the "Justice" committee held a vocal protest on campus before marching into that day's University Board of Trustees meeting.
That day they met with College of Arts and Sciences Dean Don Nieman and Mark Gromko, then interim provost, for more than an hour of intense discussion, but remained unsatisfied with the administrators' responses.
Adams said the hearing didn't go as well as he had planned.
"I was aware the minute the hearing was over we had lost," Adams said. "We didn't present our case effectively enough."
But he was grateful for the support he received in the last several months, saying it proved "I am a man of integrity ... and I am a good teacher."
"I appreciate, I truly appreciate, all the support I received from all the people on this campus," Adams said.
He said he focused too much in the hearing on questioning whether he was given due process in the rehiring process and not enough on his argument that his academic qualifications were passed over.
Indeed, the "Justice" committee frequently argued that the Department of Ethnic Studies ignored scores of glowing student evaluations when they declined to offer Adams a new contract.
An unsigned minority opinion from the hearing committee agreed.
"It is of concern to the committee that the five successful candidates' record of teaching success is highlighted in the memo to the dean recommending their hire, but nothing is mentioned about Dr. Adams' strong credentials in this area," the opinion says.
Errol Lam, an emeritus faculty and head of the committee, said he had been optimistic about the hearing.
Lam said the fact that some members of the grievance board dissented from the decision gave him some conciliation.
"I give credit ... to the hundreds who signed that petition," he said. "No one knows who they are, no one talks about the petition, but they were not phantom people who came to that petition to sign it."
Lam said the future of the committee was in doubt, but that the case reflected a need for students to remain involved in what happens at the University.
"Students are not politically conscious," he said. "They're not. They're totally unconscious, they're almost dead."
"When you go to the classroom, you would normally assume that the teacher in there is very good, but I think [the University] didn't care," Lam said.
- Read the report here.
- Read the minority report here.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
errol
posted 3/25/08 @ 1:39 AM EST
carlos my friend, the hearing board did not vote for you in the majority. but carlos - let me ssy this for now - for me and countless others, you did score the moral victory at this university NGSU over one of its academuc departments. (Continued…)
errol
posted 3/25/08 @ 1:42 AM EST
sorry for the typo - it is correctly 'BGSU'
not NGSU.
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