Faculty speculate about Plotnitsky denial

Several faculty members have said they believe Assistant English Professor Arkady Plotnitsky may have been denied tenure in February because of the nature of his work, which crosses several disciplines. The professors, who criticized the School of Arts and Sciences personnel committee's decision to deny Plotnitsky tenure, said they think Plotnitsky's work may have alienated scholars from other departments. "The nature of interdisciplinarity is such that it goes against the convictions and certainties of [individual] disciplines," Comparative Literature Professor Gerald Prince said, adding that these considerations "may very well have played a role" in the committee's decision. Plotnitsky's work focuses on literary and critical theory, which he said deals with the study of literature and literary interpretation as they relate to language, history and philosophy. "My work, like other work in contemporary literary theory, crosses disciplinary boundaries . . . it deals with figures like Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud and Kant, who are studied in other fields," Plotnitsky said. Plotnitsky would not speculate on the reasons for his tenure denial yesterday. Although Personnel Committee Chairperson William Telfer said he is barred from discussing personnel cases by University confidentiality rules, he denied the allegations that Potnitsky's interdisciplinary work had any bearing on the committee's decision. Telfer said that the professors' theory is "grossly speculative," adding that the faculty members who made the accusation "don't know anything about the case." "They were guessing," Telfer said. The SAS personnel committee voted earlier this year to recommend that Plotnitsky not be granted tenure, despite a nearly unanimous vote of support from within the English department, which his colleagues have said is highly unusual. Without tenure, Plotnitsky must leave the University at the end of this year. Many English professors roundly criticized the decision and the tenure process as a whole. "The tenure system should be more reliable, more answerable to its critics than an absurd decision like this has been," English Professor James English said. "I see something that goes beyond this case . . . a closed decision process which is easily abused and distorted." "What I fear is that other departments have made a decision about what is right and proper to the fields of English and Comparative Literature," English Professor Stuart Curran said last month. "That seems to me to be wholly wrong." A group of undergraduate students yesterday joined the list of delegates who have met with SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens, presenting her with a petition signed by 135 students protesting Plotnitsky's tenure denial. While Dean Stevens said she was "very pleased" to hear what the students had to say, she maintained that she would not discuss the case. Stevens, however, stated that she believes the personnel committee is the proper body to handle tenure cases, and would not be inclined to override its recommendations.