Report: Academic freedom and tenure: Mount Marty College (South Dakota)

Academe, May/Jun 1999 by Bergquist, James M, Gudeman, Roxane Harvey

I. Introduction

This report concerns events which occurred from January 1996 to November 1998 at Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota, located about fifty miles northwest of Sioux City, Iowa, and eighty miles southwest of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The college, situated on a bluff overlooking the valley of the Missouri River, was named for Martin Marty, the first Catholic bishop of the Dakota Territory, who in 1876 invited a group of Benedictine nuns from his native Switzerland to establish a monastery in Yankton, the capital of the territory at the time. The Benedictines began an academy for women, and established a junior college in 1936. The college became a four-year institution conferring the bachelor's degree in 1951, was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1961, and admitted its first male students in 1969. The college, describing itself as "an academic community in the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts tradition," currently offers B.A. and B.S. degrees in five academic divisions: education, health sciences, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. There is also a Division of Continuing Education and a branch campus in Watertown, South Dakota.

During the events discussed in this report, the college enrolled around 460 full-time students, mostly drawn from South Dakota and neighboring areas of Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota. The college catalog published in 1997 listed fifty-six full-time faculty members, including administrators with faculty rank. The college's Web page in March 1999 listed forty-three faculty members. The college is governed by a board of trustees, consisting of not more than thirty-one members, according to the board's bylaws, ten of whom are members of the Benedictine monastery. Dr. Larry Celmer, a retired veterinarian, chaired the board from 1996 to 1998. He was replaced in mid-1998 by Ms. Celia Miner, a Yankton attorney who had previously chaired the board's Committee on Academic Affairs.

In early 1996, the board conducted a search for a new president to replace Sister Jacquelyn Ernster, who had held the office since 1983, and who later became prioress of the adjacent Benedictine monastery. The presidential search committee, which included trustees, staff, and faculty, chose Dr. Mark Hurtubise, formerly the president of Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, Nevada, where he had earlier served successively as dean and vice president. Dr. Hurtubise received a B.A. degree from St. Joseph's College in Indiana, a law degree from Lincoln University Law School of San Jose, California (now defunct), an M.A. degree in history from Santa Clara University, and an Ed.D. degree in higher education administration from the University of San Francisco.

The case to be discussed in this report concerns the actions taken by President Hurtubise to suspend Professor Jerry Wayne Wilson from his tenured position on January 22, 1998, and then to dismiss him on February 6. Professor Wilson did his undergraduate work at Oklahoma Baptist University and received the Ph.D. degree in English from the University of Oklahoma in 1977. He joined the Mount Marty College faculty in 1981, and was promoted to the ranks of associate professor in 1984 and full professor in 1988. A popular teacher, Professor Wilson was a productive scholar and journalist throughout his years at Mount Marty College. He also served as the first president of the college's AAUP chapter when it was revived in 1997 after a period of dormancy lasting nearly thirty years. In addition, he was active in the Mount Marty College Faculty Organization (MMCFO), an umbrella body that includes all faculty members and several administrators.

II. The Events of January 1996 Through

November 1998

1. January 1996 Through November 1997

When Dr. Hurtubise applied for the presidency of Mount Marty College in January 1996, he spoke of the need to recruit students vigorously, to emphasize fund raising and external relations, and to develop a strong liberal arts curriculum in the Benedictine tradition. He called for a "strong, participative" board of trustees that would be "fully involved in institutional policy." He also called for faculty development, stating that "faculty are the caretakers of the academic mission of the institution." With regard to fostering consensus in an academic community, he spoke of "team building workshops [which] can assist employees with the understanding that each individual is needed to achieve the institution's goals." He described his term of office as president of Sierra Nevada College as having led to "substantial progress in every category that defines an institution of higher education." Faculty members who witnessed his initial appearance on the campus were favorably impressed with his personality and public presence, which seemed well suited to promoting the college to the public.

Within a few months of President Hurtubise's taking office, the faculty's hopes were replaced by increasing concerns that his principal interest seemed to lie with internal administration, and, more particularly, with establishing an administrative structure which departed from the college's traditional practices of joint planning and effort by the board of trustees, administration, and faculty. The president replaced the chairs of the academic divisions, whose appointments usually reflected a faculty consensus, with appointed heads of divisions. The new division heads were told that they were to represent the administration and were expected to implement administrative policies. They were also told to maintain a "social distance" from the faculty under their supervision, a difficult mandate for small groups of individuals who had worked together closely for years. The president replaced several existing faculty committees (most of them elected) with appointed committees or task forces. Faculty members saw their role in governance further eroded when many of the functions of the Faculty Senate were transferred to a new Academic Affairs Council. The Faculty Senate had been composed of five senators elected by the faculty, along with the dean and several other administrators. A majority of the votes on the senate were held by faculty members. The new Academic Affairs Council consists of eleven members: the academic dean, five appointed division heads defined as members of the administration, the head of the evening college, the registrar, the librarian, the dean of students, and one faculty member elected by the faculty.