ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND TENURE: NEW MEXICO HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY1

Academe, May/Jun 2006 by Nails, Debra, Baez, Benjamin, Hollinger, David A, Collins, Linda, Et al

In a brief reply sent the next day. Professor Ortiz remarked, "Please don't think for a second, Dr. Turner, that I do not respect the nontenured faculty-I know them [and] they, [like] you. are marketable. If I were with you ( I could have been!)-I know that I would look back at this time an[d] find that it, too, was a very positive thing in the long run for my career. I do empathize."

Professor Turner responded, again at some length, and this time he sent his message only to Professor Ortiz:

I do apologize for not writing you back directly. I did not intend to hit "reply all" and generate my indignation for all to necessarily consider. But I must tell you that I find your characterization of "looking back " as just bizarre....

The point is, there's a larger picture as to the reason and nature of the current harassment that current tenured and tenure-track faculty have been subjected to.

I am curious how you now understand the basis for the tenure decisions rendered? Do you feel that this was a completely arbitrary process? Do you think that there were hidden parameters of evaluation not comprehensible to the rest of us? Do you believe that this has been a just or fair process of award and rejection? Or maybe you have a Wizard of Oz philosophy-that Manny Aragon is the mysterious powerful man behind the curtain who is executing equally mysterious personnel manipulations for the benefit of everyone else incapable of fathoming such vision and insight, i.e., so we should have faith that he is addressing a bigger picture.... But is there a bigger picture than the ethical and proper professional treatment of faculty? You may choose to be oblivious, or to trivialixe the consequences, or to excuse the egregious and malicious behavior of the administration now in place for the greater good ...

I think your public proclamation of faith in the future [under) Mr. Aragon .... with conspicuous absence of mention [of] the rampant and current abuses that have been taking place[,] is insensitive to all of us who now have to live with the ramifications of being professionally and ethically mistreated and stamped under the direction of Manny Aragon and his surrogates. I can only tell you that I (personally) felt this way. and I'm gambling I'm not the only one.

Professor Ortiz replied that night: "Thanks, Greg-I recall going with you and other[s| to Santa Rosa-I will call you in the a.m."

In the process of making his various public pronouncements. Professor Turner evidently incurred the considerable displeasure of the president and the interim provost. On the afternoon of March 17, 2005, he received an e-mail message from Interim Dean Rael summoning him to a meeting in the provost's office the following afternoon. The message did not state the reason for the meeting. Accompanied by Faculty Association president Tom Ward. Professor Turner arrived the next day at Provost Chavez's office, where Dean Rael was also present. After a brief conversation, the provost handed Professor Turner a letter that stated: