Popular English professor will not get tenure

SAS decision stuns Camfield A School of Arts and Sciences committee voted to deny tenure to Gregg Camfield, an English professor well-liked by many students. Camfield said he was stunned by this decision. "I did absolutely everything I was supposed to do and to have this happen is quite surprising," he said yesterday. And many students and English professors -- including Department Chair John Richetti -- said they were upset by what they see as a great injustice. "I myself feel that Gregg deserved tenure," he said. "I would say that he did absolutely everything that he should do to get tenure at the University of Pennsylvania." This is not the only recent case of a popular professor being denied tenure. A few weeks ago, Geology Professor George Boyajian was voted down by the Personnel Committee -- although he received a unanimous vote of support from his department. According to Richetti, the requirements for tenure are teaching, scholarship and service -- all of which Camfield said he had fulfilled. Last May, Camfield received the English Undergraduate Advisory Board's first annual teaching award. Also, he has published one book and has a second book under contract. And Camfield served on the writing committee in the College which helped institute the writing requirement. Undergraduate English Chair Al Filreis described Camfield as "just the sort of faculty member we need to retain." He added that Camfield was especially popular among his students, mentioning that his evaluations in the Penn Course Review regularly averaged at 4.0. Richetti said that while Camfield received enough support from his department to reach the next step in tenure evaluation -- the SAS Personnel Committee -- not every faculty member was in favor of his tenure. And the SAS committee, comprised of distinguished members of the arts and sciences community, chose to reject his dossier, according to Richetti. But he added that SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens is not obligated to follow the advice of this committee. Stevens, however, said she believes that "deans rightly have a hands-off role in this stage of personnel determination." "My philosophy is not to override the decisions of this committee," she said. "I think they do a very good job and this is where the responsibility rests in the faculty for making judgements." Yet Stevens said she has not received a formal notification of the committee's decision in this case. Camfield said he will not be leaving the University before his time is up. "I have another year before they kick me out, so I will definitely be here another year," he said. Many members of the English UAB who have had Camfield as a professor said they were extremely disappointed at hearing the news of his rejection. "Outraged doesn't even begin to cover it," said College senior Liz Fekete. "Gregg Camfield is one of the best teachers at this University and I think the fact is incontestable." She added that she feels the administration acted in a hypocritical fashion. "Maybe I was wrong to believe that this University meant what it said when they said they were going to support teaching and undergraduate education," Fekete said. "But they have proven by this case that they didn't mean a word they said." College senior Michelle Falkoff said she was crushed by the decision. "I have absolutely no idea why they would have decided this," she said. "From what I understand the bulk of student opinion of him has been overwhelming." Fekete said the UAB is not going to let the decision go uncontested. "We are going to write letters, try to meet with the Dean -- we are going to do everything we can because he is too valuable to let leave," she said. Boyajian said last night that he was not terribly surprised by the SAS committee's decision to deny him tenure. "I have felt from day one that tenure was a crap shoot," he said. "Some people that deserve it probably don't get it; some people who get it don't deserve it." He added that he thinks he is an "above average" teacher and that as a researcher, his colleagues rank him in the top five of his peers. "If the University doesn't want that, that's up to them," Boyajian said.