According to the school spokesman, Baca purposefully sat next to Jubb at the bar in 2019 when he learned the student-trustee also had gone there with Jubb and other trustees. In an interview on Friday, Mr. Baca acknowledged mentioning a power grab in a long and contentious discussion but said he had not known that Dr. Pollack-Pelzner was Jewish or that the comment could be construed as anti-Semitic. In an interview on Thursday, Dr. Davis said that while he doesnt recall the comments he made that day, he doesnt use the phrase anymore and added, Im sorry if I said something that offended them at that time.. Miles K. Davis, president of Linfield University, a long-ingrained American response to look away, The fallout across industries has been swift. David Baca, the embattled chair of Linfield Universitys board of trustees, said he offered to resign after a faculty vote of no confidence in late May over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against another trustee, but other trustees convinced him to stay on. 4d. The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Anti-Defamation League wrote a letter to Linfield Universitys Board of Trustees on Thursday expressing disappointment and concern over claims of antisemitism chronicled in a professors social media posts. David Baca, longtime chair of Linfield University's Board of Trustees, said this week that he's stepping down. Start your risk free trial with unlimited access. Dr. Davis said that an investigation had reached the same conclusion about the accusations against Mr. Nixon, who could not be reached. Linfield University has agreed to pay just over $1 million to settle a whistleblower suit filed by tenured English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, who accused the university of firing him. Some have called for the universitys president to resign. In response, he said, Mr. Baca, the board chairman, accused me a Jewish trustee of harboring a secret agenda to grab power.. Linfield University canceled faculty Listservs over the weekend, sparking faculty cries of censorship. A student walks out of the Riley Center on the campus of Linfield University in McMinnville, Ore., Tuesday, May 21, 2019. Last week Linfield professor and faculty trustee Daniel Pollack-Pelzner tweeted that he faced antisemitic comments after he reported that multiple members of the universitys Board of Trustees had been accused of sexual misconduct by students and faculty over the past year. So to Speak podcast transcript: What is academic freedom? And as for whether this handbook had been approved by Linfields administration? Linfield University, a liberal arts college in Oregon, claims repeatedly in its faculty handbook to honor academic freedom. MSE News. I am honored to serve this great institution as Interim Chair. OPBs critical reporting and inspiring programs are made possible by the power of member support. These are real issues that Linfield has to deal with, and I understand the impulse to blame the messenger and claim that the harm is in the act of reporting rather than whats being reported, but Im hopeful that if we continue to shed a light on these abuses of power that that will allow us eventually to be able to rebuild and heal, Pollack-Pelzner said. Davis also noted that two of the trustees who were accused of sexual misconduct are African-American. In an effort to squelch criticism, the colleges administrators caught the attention of major defenders of academic freedom, as well as the Anti-Defamation League. College faculty overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in Baca on May 26, finding he failed to protect students after receiving a complaint in 2018 from a graduate who accused Jubb of sexually abusing her and two of her friends the prior year. Pollack-Pelzner goes on to relate a strange . I dont know how anybody could feel safe in this environment., Linfield University Fires Professor Who Spoke Out About Misconduct Cases, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/us/Linfield-university-professor-fired.html. Sign up to get important news and culture from around the Northwest, delivered to your inbox six days a week. Pollack-Pelzners interpretation of what Davis meant is a matter of opinion, not fact, and remains protected speech. No competent university leader could credibly believe that tenured faculty are at-will employees. In a conversation about the importance of leveling with people, they claim, Davis said something like, You dont giveJews soapwhen you send them to theshowers. Perhaps the Oregon Board of Rabbis went too far in calling for Daviss resignation over comments that seem less anti-Jewish than from outer space. Reportedly, campus security had entered faculty offices and removed posters in support of Pollack-Pelzner.. The FIRE Legal Network is a nationwide group of attorneys to whom we refer cases when counsel is necessary and the matter at issue falls outside the scope of FIREs mission or ability to assist. So eight criminal charges total, not all of them felonies. Its retaliatory in the extreme.. 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Higher Ed Leaders Propose Gun Violence Solutions, NYC Comptroller Urges Yeshiva U to Recognize LGBTQ Group, Ore. Lawmaker Seeks Sexual Misconduct Survey for All Colleges, New Report on the Resilience of Puerto Rican Universities. Friedman.. The handbook needs to be revised or it was never approved? Kerry Carmody, the board's vice chair, was named . Additionally, the ADL encouraged Linfield leadership to attend trainings on bias and antisemitism. FIREs award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed. Philadelphia, PA 19106. Linfield stands against xenophobia, racism, antisemitism and sexual misconduct in all forms.. Allegations of anti-Semitism, sexual misconduct and racial discrimination have led to turmoil on the small Oregon campus. FIREs 2022 College Free Speech Rankings are based on the voices of more than 44,000 currently enrolled students at 208 colleges and are designed to help parents and prospective students choose the right school. Students as well as fellow academics are also protesting the decision by Linfield University, a Baptist-affiliated school with some 2,000 students, to fire Daniel Pollack-Pelzner. Linfield University is a private institution that was founded in 1858. So which is it? Pollack-Pelzner tweeted that after he passed on misconduct reports, he faced comments related to his religion from the head of the human resources department and the board chair, and he had also heard President Davis talk about measuring the size of Jewish noses. In addition, Pollack-Pelzner said that Davis told him people were overreacting to swastikas that had appeared on campus. How Oregon researchers are testing 3D printing to reconstruct bone. By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org. No one else on the 33-member Linfield board faces an abuse complaint by a student, the boards executive committee said in a statement, also released last week. He said that his firing sent the message that if you use your voice to speak up against sexual misconduct, then you will lose your voice.. Daviss answer is wildly implausible on its face and incomprehensibly at odds with the basic conception of tenure. Promising to be open about budget cuts, he quoted a former professor of his who used to make the analogy, You dont send the Jews to the shower with soap, Dr. Linder said. That includes the dismissal of Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, which occurred in the middle of a Zoom meeting at Linfield University without him being granted any hearing or due process. Linfields trustees failed see that deeply held resistance to Black leadership and culture fueled the ferocity of resistance to organization change, the report said. All Ive been trying to do for the last two years is to get Linfield leadership to follow its own policies. Agre-Kippenhan, Linfields Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, does Davis no favors in playing second fiddle. Several professors have of late used mass emails or publicly criticized the university for what they describe as Linfield's poor handling of several sexual misconduct complaints involving members of the Board of Trustees. gave support to his account of racial bias, releasing a report that praised Dr. Daviss leadership and said he had been subjected to unfair personal attacks because of his race. There will be a trial and the facts will be determined by a jury. Davis has denied the allegations, and the university has supported him, even in the face of a vote by the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences calling on him to resign. FIRE defends the rights of students and faculty members no matter their views at public and private universities and colleges in the United States. (JTA) In the latest developments in an ongoing controversy at Linfield University over the firing of a tenured Jewish professor who accused the school of antisemitism, a report from the local branch of the NAACP found that the Oregon schools president was subjected to racism at the school. It could hardly be clearer. Emphatically yes. This is what systemic and institutionalized racism looks like in Oregon., The N.A.A.C.P. He also insisted that the remark was part of an academic discussion and wasnt meant to be offensive. Davis said he didnt remember Pollack-Pelzners mentioning he was Jewish. He continued: What I want is for Linfield to be a place where everyone feels that they can report whats happened to them without fear of harassment or retaliation and that we can have the education and the community commitment we need to prevent these abuses from happening in the first place.. The refusal to take this action, and the defiant tone within these messages about the possibility of even considering such a step, perpetuates an image of Linfield as an organization that is not adequately addressing sexual misconduct allegations, Miller wrote. Last week Linfield professor and faculty trustee Daniel Pollack-Pelzner tweeted that he faced antisemitic comments after he reported that multiple members of the university's Board of Trustees. Linfields administration does not get to pick and choose between the policies it has and the policies it wishes it had. The university faces growing calls for the resignation of that president, Miles K. Davis, and the chairman of its board of trustees amid accusations that they made offensive comments about Jews and that Dr. Davis and three other board members had engaged in various forms of misconduct with female professors and students. Sign up to get important news and culture from around the Northwest, delivered to your inbox six days a week. Dr. Bull served in numerous capacities and was a leader in opening new career paths for women in the corporate and educational fields. A group of Stanford faculty are publicly objecting to a campus harm reporting system they say chills campus speech. This coded language plays off racist and toxic stereotypes with a long history in this country.. I think its incredulous that so many hurtful and disturbing and inappropriate comments have been made, Miri Cypers, the ADLs Pacific Northwest regional director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Davis is Linfields first Black president, and the report said that since 1970, no Black people have been elected as faculty trustee or faculty executive chair. 13 among all public universities in the United States by Niche, a research company that produces an annual Liked by Kendra (Preugschat) Hill If Baca isnt going to step down, he should at least apologize for the tone of his statement, Miller wrote Friday in an email to Linfield faculty. [11] Last year, Linfields faculty assembly voted it had no confidence in Baca, specifically in his ability to handle sexual harassment reporting, according to reporting from Linfields student newspaper The Linfield Review. Welcome to Linfield University Discover a community where acceptance is an unbreakable promise and being uncommon is the norm. The snitcheror whistleblowerin this case is Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, who was until recently a tenured Shakespeare scholar and a voting faculty member on Linfields Board of Trustees. It is a small institution with an enrollment of 340 undergraduate students. Based on that investigation, the NAACP criticized the ADL and Oregon Board of Rabbis for calling on Davis to resign. Linfield fires prof who raised sexual harassment, antisemitism allegations By Rob Manning (OPB) April 27, 2021 6:58 p.m. His recent Twitter posting is just the latest salvo in an effort that has caused harm to the university and our community.. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which aims to defend student and faculty freedom of speech on campus, sent a letter to Davis on Thursday night demanding that he reverse Pollack-Pelzners termination, condemning what it called reckless conduct., The Shakespeare Association of America also backed Pollack-Pelzner, who teaches about Shakespeare, writing,Whistleblowers should not be punished and anti-semitism and other forms of racism should be condemned., A 2018 photo of the Linfield University campus in McMinnville, Ore. (George Rose/Getty Images). As the fallout continues over Linfield Universitys summary termination of a tenured professor with no process whatsoever the Chronicle of Higher Educations new story on the controversy is a must-read. Jackson B. Miller, a communication arts professor, criticized both statements,. Linfield laid this, and other allegations, out in a statement last year from the Executive Committee of the universitys board of trustees. Dr. Pollack-Pelzner, Dr. Linder, Dr. Tompkins, Dr. Friedman and two other professors who had received requests to speak to the group responded in an email that investigating employees who have reported harassment and retaliation, no matter how well-intentioned the investigation is itself an act of retaliation., As the controversy has dragged on, Mr. Baca, the board chairman, has tried to reassure students and others on campus who have protested the handling of the sexual misconduct accusations, writing in a letter to the Linfield community last July, I believe that you are safe, that there is justice and that the trustees are protecting you.. But the committee disclosed that a faculty member in February accused one trustee of inappropriate touching of the shoulder and another trustee of inappropriate touching of the leg. The committee didnt name the trustees and said an outside investigator is looking into the complaint. He has denied the students allegations, Baca wrote. The university exists as a powerful reminder that threats to academic freedom often come not from ideologues but from administrators who fear criticism and have no business running a university. The State College of Florida Bradenton requested a traveling art exhibition to remove pieces with the words diversity, inclusion, justice, and equality. In a letter responding to the ADL, Davis invited the group to meet following the academic year but rebuffed the call to resign. Mr. Bacas open letter also took aim at Dr. Pollack-Pelzner, saying it is shameful that a faculty trustee has spread misinformation about the sexual misconduct cases. There is a jury trial scheduled for that case in November. If your rights are in jeopardy, get in touch with us: thefire.org/alarm. Linfield by-laws require a lengthy process including multiple hearings, which did not happen in Pollack-Pelzners case. Last two years is to get important news and culture from around the,... 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