Let the faculty speak for themselves
By Walter S. Leal and James R. Carey
The op-ed piece, “Reviewing the Case for Katehi’s Resignation,” published Sunday, Dec. 18, in The Davis Enterprise, is misleading due to a number of serious errors/omissions. The author stresses that “the majority of the faculty in two of the largest and most important departments in the sciences and humanities, physics and English, call(ed) for (Chancellor Linda Katehi’s) resignation.”
As far as we can tell, there has never been an interdepartmental competition to rank departments on campus on the basis of their “importance.” There are 86 academic departments, 48 graduate groups and 40 department-based graduate programs on campus.
Depending on the criteria, one may claim that the most important departments are those in the medical school, because they save lives. Others may consider that the School of Law (a single-department school) is the most important, because it helps protect the freedom of speech and human rights.
Physics and English both are home to distinguished scholars, but it is divisive to single out these two departments out of 86 (2.3 percent) just because they seem to agree with one’s viewpoint.
Departments are normally ranked by the National Research Council among similar programs nationwide. In that context, Spanish is one of the most important departments on campus as it was ranked between No. 1 and No. 6. Similarly, our department (entomology) was ranked between No. 1 and No. 7.
The list of departments ranking in the top tier is exhaustive, but let us cite just a few to emphasize the point and take the opportunity to let people outside the campus know the great work under way at UC Davis. Nutrition, agricultural and resource economics, food science and performance studies are ranked between 1 and 14, 2 and 4, 4 and 17, and 4 and 16, respectively.
It is also questionable whether the majority of the faculty members in physics and English are indeed supporting the call for the chancellor’s resignation. Of the 62 voting members of the Academic Senate listed on the physics department website, 30 signed the said call for resignation. They may be divided in their opinion, but let’s not make statements that may be divisive to them.
The author cited a petition signed by more than 110,000 people. This is certainly a large number in absolute terms — more people than our city of Davis could possibly accommodate, let alone our campus. However, there are a few issues the reader must consider. Do they have a stake in our university? Are they California taxpayers? Do they know all the facts or were they incited by the videos of the pepper-spraying incident of Nov. 18?
These signees (at most 4.6 percent of the viewers) were registering their emotional response to the very vivid video, likely with very little consideration of facts of the occupation or knowledge of the chancellor’s involvement and past record.
The opinion piece indicated that the board of the Davis Faculty Association issued a call for the chancellor’s resignation. However, the author did not mention that the majority of the membership did not and do not support the board’s decision. This came out during a follow-up survey of the entire membership.
In addition, the letter from the chair of the Graduate Students Association did not call for the chancellor’s resignation. The chair, Kathryn Kolesar, has publicly announced that she never made that claim.
Lastly, the author states that “dozens of faculty from different departments” supported a “no confidence” letter, but he neglected to mention that conversely, a letter of support, signed by a large number of faculty, drew even more support. It was published in The Davis Enterprise, the Chronicle of Higher Education and other news media. Another fact: the number of signatures continues to grow; it’s currently at 271, almost 10 percent of the Academic Senate membership.
Similarly, the UCD Academic Senate has received letters and petitions calling for either votes of confidence or “no confidence.” The Senate will follow a due process regarding these petitions with diametrically opposed views, and the entire membership will vote. Then, and only then, will we know if the majority of the faculty supports Katehi or if they seek her resignation.
Let the faculty speak for themselves and let’s abide by the vote of the majority regardless of the outcome.
— Walter S. Leal and James R. Carey are professors of entomology at UC Davis.
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=119289
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on Jan 2 2012.
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It’s not a matter of whether or not emotions are involved. It’s a question of whether the emotion is primary or secondary. It’s perfectly sensible and appropriate to experience emotions as part of a primacy-of-logic reaction.
In these discussions, let’s not lose sight of the central issue: The
Chancellor authorized the police to remove students from the quad. This
removal was premature and unnecessary. It was in violation of our
campus Principles of Community, and of a proud tradition in which
students have led national discussions of equality and justice. Most
seriously, it was an action taken despite the precedence for violent
confrontation which occurred shortly before at Berkeley. It was a
profound error in judgment made worse by an initial response which was
defensive and unapologetic.
[...] their views on the issue. Out of 1400 faculty only about 400 have taken a public position. See Walter Leal and James Carey and myself (here and here) on this point. If I had to bet, I would wager that the no [...]