Fine Arts prof won't get tenure

Although given credit for the program's revitalization, Julie Schneider will not get tenure. Fine Arts Department Undergraduate Chairperson Julie Saecker Schneider will not be considered for tenure, University officials announced last month in a controversial decision that has prompted 178 undergraduate and graduate students to sign a petition on her behalf. College senior and Fine Arts minor Diana Falchuk and Hye Yong Min, a Fine Arts major in the College of General Studies, sent a letter with a petition to University President Judith Rodin and Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack requesting Schneider's "continued presence" at the University. "In the past four years, we have watched a virtually non-existent undergraduate curriculum flourish into the vital, rigorous and nationally ranked fine arts program that it is today," Falchuk and Min said in the petition, which was released on April 5. The co-authors of the petition both lauded Schneider for her accessibility as a professor and for her contributions to Penn's Fine Arts program as a whole. Under her guidance, the students say, the number of majors has tripled and certain specialties -- namely photography and ceramics -- have seen dramatic improvements in the quality of facilities and the number of courses offered. "The program is vital and thriving and it's all because of Julie," Falchuk said. And Min claimed that the program has recently gone from "almost inactive" to "nationally ranked" because of Schneider's dedication. But Hack maintained that while Schneider is a "wonderful teacher" and "wonderful administrator," there was "not a clear-cut case" to award her tenure. "There was a lot of disagreement about whether her work was cutting-edge work," Hack said. Schneider's dossier was reviewed by a committee of 16 experts in the field, composed primarily of art professors from peer institutions, who decided to allow Schneider to maintain her post as undergraduate chairperson through next year. Schneider's future at Penn is uncertain after that. Administrators told Schneider -- who has taught drawing and painting at Penn for four years -- that she would not receive tenure on March 22 and, although she admits to having felt "profound disappointment," she noted that she is satisfied to "continue doing the same job." Hack maintained that he would like to keep Schneider on board, but not as a tenured professor. "We would love to have her with us," he said. But while Schneider felt the committee was "solidly behind me," she said she was surprised at the vastly differing opinions that her art generated. "Those letters were divided in the significance of my work," Schneider said, noting that while some committee members considered her art intelligent and provocative, the "other half hated my work." According to Schneider, the University has not granted tenure to any professor in the undergraduate division of the Fine Arts program since 1968. And of the three standing faculty members, the only one who does have tenure, Bob Slutzky, arrived at Penn as a tenured professor in 1990. But several students say that Penn would be making a mistake if it is unable to retain Schneider in any capacity. According to Min, the decision was surprising because "it's not like she's not well-known or her abilities are in doubt." "It's really sad and shocking and ridiculous that the University is going to let her slip by," Falchuk said. "I would not be where I am as a person, as an artist, as a student at Penn without Julie."