Boyajian withdraws tenure bid

Despite student and departmental support, Geology Professor George Boyajian has withdrawn his second application for tenure at the University. The School of Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee originally denied Boyajian tenure last spring, despite the Geology Department's unanimous support. The department would have reviewed Boyajian's application this spring for a second time and, pending its approval, the case would have then gone to the SAS Personnel Committee again. But Boyajian chose to withdraw his tenure application before he found out if it was accepted. "Had I gotten tenure, I knew I wouldn't have been happy here," Boyajian said. "It would have been disingenuous for me to pursue tenure when I would be unhappy." According to Boyajian, receiving tenure rests heavily on research. "If you're successful in your course, you spend more time on the course, and then you have less time to spend with research," he said. Boyajian wrote a letter to Geology Department Chairperson Hermann Pfefferkorn, informing the department and the administration of his decision. The letter, dated March 27, came two days after The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that the Personnel Committee had denied English Professor Gregg Camfield's second application for tenure. "My decision had already been made at that time," Boyajian said. "The Camfield decision was a confirmation of things I already knew." Boyajian delayed making the information public until last weekend to "give the president, provost, dean and geology faculty members time to respond," he explained. In his letter, Boyajian criticized the University and his department for pursuing a path that is "incompatible with goals that these institutions espouse." "Creativity, innovation and results" are not encouraged at the University, Boyajian explained yesterday. "I've found that these are actually discouraged," he said. "To some degree, I lost my passion for being a professor and for the field of being a paleobiologist." In his letter, Boyajian noted that only one of the nine strategic goals of the University's 1995 "Agenda for Excellence," deals with academic achievement. "This stark imbalance calls into question the leadership and vision within the University," he wrote. Boyajian said yesterday that because the University is made up of a "collection of individuals" instead of a "community of scholars," it cannot achieve the same level of prestige as other schools. "It is not my intention to rip the University or the Geology Department," he added. "I don't want to tear either down, but I am concerned about the future of both. "There are storms brewing on the horizon that Penn is not prepared for," Boyajian said. During his time at the University, Boyajian created a General Requirement course entitled "Earth and Life Through Time." "I asked him to create that when he came because he had the expertise," Pfefferkorn said. "He was an excellent teacher and he contributed in many ways to the department." Next year, Boyajian will work at Roundtable Partners, a Philadelphia-based consulting group. He said the opportunity to work at the company "presented itself fortuitously." Boyajian has been working for the company part time for six months and will become a full-time employee on July 1. "At Roundtable Partners, if you're creative, innovative and you get results, your rewards are commensurate with your performance," he said. "This is not the case at Penn." Pfefferkorn said Boyajian's position in the department will not be filled immediately. "We hope that two years from now we will be able to hire somebody else to replace him," he said. Boyajian's students expressed disappointment about his decision to leave the University. "I think it's a big loss to the University community that he is leaving," College freshman Sarah Weinstock said. "He loves his material and that's what he wants to imbue in all of us." And College sophomore Elie Haller noted that although the majority of her class is taking it to fulfill the General Requirement, Boyajian's enthusiasm has made the class enjoyable. "I didn't think that rocks could be fun," she said. "He made geology exciting."