Southeastern Oklahoma State University

I came to Southeastern seven years ago with high hopes. I made significant contributions to SE’s success by repeatedly helping to organize SE’s only regularly scheduled academic conference—the Native American Symposium, edited two editions of the Proceedings of the symposium with my colleague Dr. Mark Spencer, was key to bringing the renowned scholar—Dr. Rennard Strickland—to campus to teach an Oklahoma Scholar-Leadership Enrichment Program course, served as Dr. Strickland’s campus coordinator, chaired the Department of English, Languages & Humanities' Assessment, Planning, and Development Committee while serving on many other department committees, served as an elected member of the Faculty Senate, the Personnel Policies Committee, the Faculty Senate Planning Committee, developed new face to face and internet courses while being consistently nominated by my students for awards in teaching--my last peer-reviewed classroom observation included the word “inspirational” in its assessment.  I came to SE having already proved my credentials as a creative writer—overseeing two productions of an original play, awarded a residential writing fellowship by the prestigious Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Writer of the Year in Academic Prose by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. While SE is primarily a teaching institution, I have published ten scholarly, peer-reviewed articles in print and on-line journals as well as contributed a chapter to an anthology of post-colonial literature—many more than are required for tenure and promotion at SE. In fact, last year my colleagues recommended me for tenure and promotion. The administration rejected their recommendation. SE policy recognizes faculty as the best judges of who should be retained, promoted, or let go. As a matter of fact, our policy states that the president is obliged to honor faculty recommendations unless the president shows that there is a "compelling reason" or that "exceptional circumstances" exist for rejecting the recommendation of faculty. The president failed to cite any evidence that remotely meets the criteria required. This year, the interim vice president for academic affairs, Doug McMillan, issued a memo prohibiting me from applying for tenure. This is quite unusual--as far as I know--unprecedented. I personally know of at least three people who were granted tenure and promotion at SE after an initial denial. I filed a grievance with the Faculty Appellate Committee and they unanimously ruled that I should be allowed to apply for tenure and promotion. The Faculty Senate passed a resolution respectfully requesting the president, Larry Minks, to honor the decision of the FAC. The president chose to eschew the judgment of the FAC as well as the Faculty Senate's request. He denied me the opportunity to apply for tenure and promotion, and issued a letter stating my contract for next semester will not be renewed "without cause." The FAC is the only safeguard that due process and policy are followed. What is the point of having a FAC if the president may decide at his pleasure which decisions he will respect and which ones he will eschew? As a matter of fact, in my case the administration wrote new policy (without consulting the faculty) allowing the president to disregard the FAC's decision--effectively changing the rules of the game once play had commenced.

What can be done now? Write to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and let them know of your dissatisfaction with the administration's abuse of power. This is about preserving our fundamental democratic values in our public universities--respecting fair play, due process, and equality. Please request that the Governing Board of the Regional System of Oklahoma direct Larry Minks to respect the decision of the Faculty Appellate Committee, honor the resolution passed by the Faculty Senate, and renew Dr. Rachel Tudor's contract. Contact info:  Sheridan McCaffree, Executive Director, Regional University System of Oklahoma, 3555 NW 58th St, Suite 320, OKC, OK 73112; 405-942-8817; email: smccaffree@ruso.edu