Virginia Tech Board Reverses Itself on Appointment

Academe, Mar/Apr 2004

A year and a half after sparking a controversy by revoking a job offer to Shelli Fowler, the same-sex partner of a new graduate dean, the governing board of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in November approved Fowler's appointment to a tenured professorship in the English department. Fowler will also serve as director of the university's Graduate Education Development Institute.

In 2002, as part of an arrangement to hire her partner, Fowler was offered an appointment in the English department, which was approved by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Fowler had signed an employment contract with the university and was preparing to move from Washington state to Virginia when the university's board of visitors, citing budgetary reasons, denied approval of her appointment. Critics accused the board of discriminating against Fowler on the basis of her sexual orientation, noting that the board had previously approved heterosexual spousal hires and that eleven other new faculty appointments were approved at the time that Fowler's was denied.

In March 2003, after public protest on campus and elsewhere, Fowler, who previously had been a tenured professor at Washington State University, was given a one-year appointment at Virginia Tech. She now continues as a professor with tenure.