linfield university controversy

Dr. Davis said that an investigation had reached the same conclusion about the accusations against Mr. Nixon, who could not be reached. 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 a statement, the university said Dr. Pollack-Pelzner had been fired for cause., He has engaged in conduct that is harmful to the university; deliberately violated instructions to preserve the attorney-client privilege, and deliberately circulated false statements about the university, its employees and its board and refused to comply with university policies, the statement said. It could hardly be clearer. Dr. Tompkins remembered slightly different wording. The indictment came after a student trustee filed a federal lawsuit in which she accused Mr. Jubb, 72, of assaulting her after a faculty-trustee dinner. As for whether he faces eight felony charges or one felony charge and seven misdemeanors, the remark is substantially true: He does, in fact, face eight criminal charges. 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. His termination, the letter says, threatens to set a precedent that will eviscerate the foundational principles of both free speech and of faculty governance on university campuses., Miles K. Davis, Linfield University's president, denies saying anything antisemitic. He said Pollack-Pelzners firing was a personnel issue that Im not a party to and I have no opinion one way or the other about it., Pollack-Pelzners firing has led to an outcry among professors worldwide. Israeli Orthodox Jew raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims of settler riot, Wikipedias Supreme Court tackles alleged conspiracy to distort articles on Holocaust, This Purim, a space for queer Jews to celebrate their identities and dance the night away, Avi Maoz, Israeli politician and proud homophobe, resigns from deputy minister role, As Israel reels from violent attack on Palestinians, settler leadership remains unapologetic. Linfield University announced Tuesday that the chair of its Board of Trustees, David Baca, has stepped down from the leadership post after four years, including a tumultuous last several months. Pollack-Pelzner and two other professors accused Davis of making antisemitic comments about Jewish noses and the Holocaust, but Davis denied the allegations. Sign up to get important news and culture from around the Northwest, delivered to your inbox six days a week. Linfield University is affiliated with American Baptist Churches, USA. 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. Agre-Kippenhan, Linfields Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, does Davis no favors in playing second fiddle. (JTA) Criticism is mounting over the firing of a Jewish professor who accused his Oregon universitys leadership of making antisemitic comments, with the local branch of the Anti-Defamation League joining calls for the president of the school to resign. Recently, two psychology professors, Tanya Tompkins and Jennifer Linder, said that Dr. Davis had made a comment about the Holocaust during a department meeting in 2018. 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. The local chapter of the ADL sent a letter Wednesday calling on Davis to resign to allow the community to heal. The Oregon Board of Rabbis had previously called on Davis to step down. The people who have been accused deny that these things were ever said, Linfield spokesperson Scott Nelson said in a statement. With their support, I will continue to lead the Board to the best of my ability and serve the university I love, he wrote in a statement the university released last week. Affording process before any action? Pollack-Pelzner said he believed the antisemitism was partly in response to his asking the school to do more to address allegations of sexual assault. I havent seen any indication that people in positions of power at Linfield want to hold themselves accountable., Other organizations have also come out in Pollack-Pelzners defense. Reportedly, campus security had entered faculty offices and removed posters in support of Pollack-Pelzner.. The only major offered is Nursing. Student Life The Anti-Defamation League and Oregon Board of Rabbis also asked him to resign. We . The vote came after reports in The Oregonian/OregonLive about the 2019. of Jubb, who faces sexual abuse charges involving a student-trustee in 2019 and three students in 2017. (Linfield students, on the other hand, are subject to the noblesse oblige and whims of Davis: The student handbook has a get-out-of-policy-free card for Davis, granting him the prerogative of total authority to act without consultation with any other person or conduct board to suspend or expel any student that Davis feels is acting contrary and dangerous to the university. It said that he had been called divisive, intimidating, combative, aggressive, disrespectful and abusive, which the report called coded racist language. WiMSE Partners to Help Invisible Homeless - January 26, 2023. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Emphatically yes. One of those trustees resigned in 2019 and has been charged with sexual abuse. No competent university leader could credibly believe that tenured faculty are at-will employees. Daten ber Ihr Gert und Ihre Internetverbindung, wie Ihre IP-Adresse, Browsing- und Suchaktivitten bei der Nutzung von Yahoo Websites und -Apps. Both students and faculty members have repeatedly called on Baca to step down over Linfields handling of sexual misconduct reports by students against David Jubb, a former trustee who is facing a criminal trial. Pioneer Hall on the Linfield University campus in McMinnville, Ore. Check out our library of resources to get started on your First Amendment journey! 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). 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. In addition, the schools president, Miles K. Davis, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he had in fact made a comment about the size of Jewish noses to Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, the professor who was fired this week. Regardless, I asked for and received his resignation from the Board.. It is exciting to be part of Linfield during this time of evolution and progress, and I look forward to working with faculty, staff, administration and the Linfield community as we design and begin our new strategic planning process, Carmody said in a statement. The two statements are the latest developments in a controversy that has roiled the McMinnville campus for months. Jubb has pleaded not guilty to sex abuse charges. Feb . 2022 Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression That lawsuit is still pending. Dr. Pollack-Pelzner, who was hired by the university in 2010 and has written about theater and the arts as a contributor for The New York Times, said he had been fired without a hearing or any of the other due process protections normally granted to tenured faculty members. He also insisted that the remark was part of an academic discussion and wasnt meant to be offensive. Here, you'll find full details on how to place either request. Several professors have of late used mass emails or publicly criticized the university for what they describe as Linfields poor handling of several sexual misconduct complaints involving members of the Board of Trustees. This is what systemic and institutionalized racism looks like in Oregon., The N.A.A.C.P. FIRE files an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold the First Amendment rights of a dog-toy maker to parody a famous whiskey brand and to adopt a test that protects free expression against overzealous trademark owners, including colleges and universities. One of those reports included former board member David Jubb, who was indicted last year on eight counts seven counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of first-degree sexual abuse. We strive for an inclusive and welcoming campus for our students and employees.. We find that President Davis has been subject to numerous instances of unfair treatment since his arrival in July 2018, and this unfair treatment of personal attacks were due to being a Black man, the report says. In a June 17, 2019, email to board members, Baca wrote that Jubb, 71, had advised him he was resigning due to health concerns. Baca cited Jubbs valuable service to the board and the College and urged gratitude for his positive contributions.. Durch Klicken auf Alle akzeptieren erklren Sie sich damit einverstanden, dass Yahoo und unsere Partner Ihre personenbezogenen Daten verarbeiten und Technologien wie Cookies nutzen, um personalisierte Anzeigen und Inhalte zu zeigen, zur Messung von Anzeigen und Inhalten, um mehr ber die Zielgruppe zu erfahren sowie fr die Entwicklung von Produkten. On Thursday, Pollack-Pelzner told JTA that he learned he was fired only when he discovered he was locked out of his work email. Perhaps Davis shifted to the remark about the trustee because he conceded to the Chronicle that he had, in fact, made the remark about Jewish noses that Pollack-Pelzner had alleged: A campus investigation last August into the nose comment, along with other matters, called it a he said, he said situation and stated that Davis had denied saying it. Baca said he met at length with Motis when she raised her complaint in 2019 and he banned Jubb from attending the next board meeting while he began a process to remove him as trustee. No competent university leader could credibly believe that tenured faculty are at-will employees. 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. On Friday, the local branch of the N.A.A.C.P. FIRE defends the rights of students and faculty members no matter their views at public and private universities and colleges in the United States. Throughout a controversy that has resulted in two separate no-confidence votes, Davis and the board that supports him have behaved like petty tyrants, altering the colleges governance structure, suspending mass faculty emails, and insisting that all broad correspondence be vetted by the vice president of finance and administration. Nor is this a policy that somehow escaped the administrations approval: It has been in Linfields faculty handbook since at least 2013. Dr. Vivian Ann (Johnson) Bull of Madison, New Jersey, a former college president and professor, and a recognized authority on the Middle East economic issues, died Aug. 12. All Ive been trying to do for the last two years is to get Linfield leadership to follow its own policies. Although he is stepping down as chair, Baca will still serve on the board. The fact that Linfield violated its own policies is so clear that President Davis can only assert that the handbook, which was revised as recently as 2020 and is almost certainly contractually binding, is woefully out of date. As more than one reporter has observed, the employee handbook, which Davis asserts is a better guide, refers readers to the very appendix in which the procedures Linfield failed to follow are set forth. Its overwhelming, its destabilizing its an attack on the values of higher education that I have worked so hard with colleagues to uphold, he said. One faculty trustee also accused board members of anti-Semitism, and the arts and sciences faculty voted overwhelmingly that it has no confidence in President Miles Davis or David Baca, board chair. The most serious of the sexual misconduct allegations involved a trustee, David Jubb, who resigned in June 2019 and was charged in an indictment last May with one count of felony sexual abuse and seven counts of misdemeanor sexual abuse. But no such corollary exists for faculty and students should not be subject to such a bizarre policy. (Courtesy of Linfield University). The president said he was unaware of the guidelines, hadnt seen the most recent version of the faculty handbook, didnt know who had updated it, and didnt believe it had been approved by the administration. Linfield laid this, and other allegations, out in a statement last year from the Executive Committee of the universitys board of trustees. This is purportedly an example as Linfield said in response to media inquiries of the conduct that is harmful to the university that necessitated Pollack-Pelzners immediate termination, but its not clear what the universitys interest is at all. His recent Twitter posting is just the latest salvo in an effort that has caused harm to the university and our community.. The metadata of the PDF file reveals that it was generated by an executive assistant to Susan Agre-Kippenhan, the senior Linfield administrator who announced Pollack-Pelzners termination. That is exactly what FIRE is telling Davis and the institution he currently leads. Faces of Research: Meet Aaron Stebner - February 13, 2023. Explore the scintillating March 2023 issue of Commentary. If the NAACP would like to talk with me I would be happy to speak, he said, but he noted that the group had not responded to a list of questions he and several other professors had sent them about the investigation. 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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. Linfields faculty handbook requires a lengthy process, including two formal hearings, before a professor with tenure can be fired procedures that have not been followed in this case. Richard Belzer was a Jewish comedian. Pollack-Pelzner, an English literature professor who had tenure, was fired Tuesday after he and others publicly accused Linfield President Miles K. Davis of making multiple antisemitic comments,. Students and alumni have condemned the firing, and more than 1,000 professors from the United States, Canada and other countries have signed a letter saying the universitys action could eviscerate the foundational principles of both free speech and of faculty governance on university campuses., They have fired the whistle-blower, said Jamie Friedman, an associate professor of English, who had accused Dr. Davis and another trustee of touching her inappropriately at university events. An open letter signed by more than 1,800 professors says that Linfield denied Pollack-Pelzner due process. Davis also noted that two of the trustees who were accused of sexual misconduct are African-American. The Zestimate for this Townhouse is $559,300, which has decreased by $54,929 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this Townhouse is $3,499/mo, which has decreased by $247/mo in the last 30 days. Some have called for the universitys president to resign. Reginald Richardson, the president of the local NAACP chapter, told JTA that he trusted the independent investigation of the antisemitism claims, and that Pollack-Pelzners firing was outside the scope of the NAACP report. He said that he had reported that four trustees had been accused of sexual misconduct by students and faculty over the past year and suggested that there be sexual harassment training and guidelines. Where small class sizes translate to big opportunities. While I did not witness any untoward behavior as alleged, I regret that Mr. Jubb was allowed to be in the same setting with a student, Mr. Baca wrote. Based on that investigation, the NAACP criticized the ADL and Oregon Board of Rabbis for calling on Davis to resign. Additionally, the ADL encouraged Linfield leadership to attend trainings on bias and antisemitism. Baca came under scrutiny most recently earlier this year when former faculty member Daniel Pollack-Pelzner brought to light allegations of harassment and anti-Semitism among Linfield leadership. A group of Stanford faculty are publicly objecting to a campus harm reporting system they say chills campus speech. 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. Pollack-Pelzner and two other professors accused Davis of making antisemitic comments about Jewish noses and the institution he leads! Linfields Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, does Davis no favors playing. 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