The governing council of a national academic association this week voted to censure Linfield University over the abrupt firing of tenured English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, an advocate for students and faculty who had complained of sexual harassment by four university board trustees.
The move by the American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit group of faculty and other academic professionals based in Washington, D.C., follows an investigation it had done that found Linfield fired Pollack-Pelzner without due process and violated the school’s own regulations on academic freedom.
The association appointed a committee of university professors from outside schools who had no prior involvement in the case to investigate the firing. The committee concluded in April that the firing occurred without the university providing cause for the dismissal in a hearing before a selected group of faculty. The university has adopted the recommended national standard that calls for such a hearing.
Scott Nelson, associate vice president of Linfield University, said by email that the university strongly disagrees with the findings and censure, contending its based on “inaccurate and misleading information.”
“Linfield University unequivocally supports academic freedom and faculty tenure. AAUP has no standing on our campuses nor authority in this matter, and its designation will have no impact on the important work we are doing to strengthen shared governance, recruit and retain top-tier faculty and create a welcoming community that values and celebrates the perspectives and passions of our increasingly diverse student body,” he said.
Pollack-Pelzner learned of his firing on April 27, 2021, when his school-issued laptop suddenly froze during a video conference and his university email account sent out a return message that he was no longer employed by the school.
That afternoon, Linfield Provost Susan Agre-Kippenhan sent a message to the university community saying Linfield “took the extraordinary step of terminating the employment of a member of our faculty for serious breaches of the individual’s duty to the institution.”
At the time, the university said in a statement that Pollack-Pelzner “deliberately circulated false statements about the university, its employees and its board,” was insubordinate and “interfered with the university’s administration of its responsibilities.”
The firing of Pollack-Pelzner, who began teaching at Linfield in 2010 and held an endowed chair in Shakespeare studies, touched off an international outcry from educational organizations, as well as Linfield students, alumni and faculty. He’s now suing the university.
Miles K. Davis, university president, last year told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the firing had nothing to do with Pollack-Pelzner’s academic performance or professional competence but said he was terminated as a university employee “for cause.”
The national association began censuring administrations in 1930. Schools censured are not observing the principles of academic freedom and tenure approved by the group, and reflect on its present administration, according to its website. Its statement of principles holds that higher education institutions are “conducted for the common good, and that the common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free expression.”
Among other things, Pollack-Pelzner had criticized how the chair of Linfield’s board of trustees and Davis responded to abuse and harassment complaints, including the actions of former Linfield trustee David Jubb, who was indicted for allegedly groping four students in 2019 and 2017. Jubb, a longtime member of Linfield University’s board of trustees who resigned under fire, was sentenced in October to 18 months of probation and ordered to undergo an alcohol abuse assessment after he entered no contest pleas to two counts of harassment for groping two students.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
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