Our purpose in writing this column is to express our dissatisfaction with the recent decision by the School of Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee to deny tenure to History professor Ronald Granieri. Our efforts are entirely independent and solely motivated by the outrage we feel at Penn’s decision to deny tenure to a clearly qualified scholar. Granieri is in no way involved in this affair, explicitly or implicitly.
Tenure has two main components: research and teaching. It is well known that Ivy League institutions have rigorous requirements for promotion. According to Penn’s Office of Institutional Research and Analysis, less than half of assistant professors at Penn receive tenure. Many a wonderful teacher has been denied tenure due to a lack in either the quantity or quality of his or her research.
But this is not the case with Granieri. Though our perspective is naturally that of undergraduates, Granieri’s research speaks for itself. Penn’s History department has endorsed his research as fully deserving tenure for two years in a row.
His first book with Berghahn Press was well received, and his second is currently under contract with the Oxford University Press. He has been awarded the prestigious Chancellor Scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Research Foundation in Germany, the country that is the subject of his scholarship, as well as membership in the American Council on Germany’s Young Leader Program. These are the credentials of a scholar respected in his field whose research fully satisfies the strict standards that a world-class university such as Penn should demand.
Furthermore, Granieri’s teaching is legendary. He is a magnificent lecturer and an inspired seminar leader. Over 450 people signed a petition to protest the Personnel Committee’s decision, ranging from the classes of 2005 to 2013, across all four schools — as well as graduate students, exchange students and senior associates. Many included personal stories about their life-changing experiences with Granieri. This outpouring of support is proof of Granieri’s remarkable abilities that speak to the serious history student, the student taking a requirement course and everyone in between. He has directed our thesis seminar for three consecutive semesters — the only professor to do so in recent years — and has helped us develop as students, scholars and thinkers.
The University has repeatedly emphasized its focus on teaching. In an article titled “On Teaching,” published in winter 2009, SAS Dean Rebecca Bushnell wrote, “In the School of Arts and Sciences, we are constantly thinking and rethinking about how we can best teach our students.” Now is the chance to show that the University’s commitment to teaching goes beyond just one magazine article. A teacher of Granieri’s caliber is rare, and one who is also a brilliant scholar is even rarer.
Finally, the decision to deny tenure to such a highly qualified teacher and well-established researcher has long-term implications for the History Department and the University as a whole. The History Department has already lost one valuable diplomatic historian, as Bruce Kuklick retired last year. Losing another would weaken one of Penn’s best departments. Granieri works in collaboration with the program in German Studies, teaches courses on the history of international relations crucial to no less than three majors and contributes valuable diversity to a department best known for its excellence in U.S. history.
As four out of nine recent recipients of the University-wide teaching award for Assistant Professors have eventually left Penn, and Granieri might soon join their ranks, how can Penn assure aspiring teachers that they would not suffer the same fate?
Thankfully, the decision is not yet irreversible. Bushnell has been given the power to overrule the Personnel Committee in these matters for exactly this occasion: when an academic treasure is about to slip through the bureaucratic cracks of our tenure process. As students who care about the future of the University, we respectfully call upon Bushnell to forward Granieri’s tenure bid to the Provost’s Office and correct the Personnel Committee’s inexplicable error. He is the sort of professor that Penn should be holding on to, not letting go. This guest column was written by the members of Granieri’s thesis seminar. To reach them, e-mail class member and College senior Sophie Cavoulacos at sophiemc@sas.upenn.edu.
