March 16, 2004

Nona Gerard Update

[UPDATE: Earlier Gerard posts here and here.]

Mom points out this story on Nona Gerard's firing from Penn State. Gerard has just cleaned out her office.

Last August, [PSU-Altoona Dean] Cale filed written allegations against Gerard, saying she failed to perform her job duties by not supporting the Altoona campus Integrative Arts degree, and that she had committed grave misconduct by writing derogatory e-mails that created a hostile work environment for other faculty members.

If those are the charges on record, there is no freaking way that they justify firing a tenured professor. Opposing department programs and saying bad things about other faculty members are EXACTLY what academic freedom is supposed to protect. Penn State needs to justify this right away, lawsuit or no lawsuit; until they do, I and every other academic should condemn them in no uncertain terms. And I hope Gerard skins Penn State in a breach-of-contract lawsuit.


Posted by Matt Weiner at March 16, 2004 05:45 PM
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