By ERIC KELDERMAN
Joseph M. Hayse's three-decade quest for tenure is littered with bodies. It has outlived the careers of most of the people involved — and several of the people themselves.
In 1979, Mr. Hayse filed a lawsuit against the University of Kentucky that has turned into a legal Ping-Pong match anecdotally described as the longest-running court battle in the Bluegrass State, and perhaps the lengthiest tenure dispute in the country.
On paper, at least, Mr. Hayse, 71, has won favorable court rulings from the state's circuit, appeals, and supreme courts. But he has not won tenure, and his suit lingers on. So does his anger at the university.
"I just hate to let them off the hook," says Mr. Hayse, who retired in 1999 after nearly 21 years in a state-government job.
His wife is angry, too. "It ruined his career," she says. "It's not that we can't survive, but I always thought ... he couldn't fulfill his whole potential."
"I think they're going to keep going at it and going at it until he dies," she continues. "I know the university is a big body. It's like fighting a monster; a big dragon."
Mr. Hayse, so far, is winning the war of attrition. The dean who was found to have improperly denied Mr. Hayse's tenure applications died more than a dozen years ago, two of the university's general counsels have succumbed during the long-running dispute, and the university's president at the time of the original suit is now deceased. Two other presidents have also come and gone: Both are retired.
3 comments:
Tenure is a ridiculous concept anyway. A person should be easily fired if he is not currently doing his job well, regardless of past performance. Also, am I to assume that the only reason he did not get tenure is because he is black? What else is going on in this situation that could be the reason he has been denied tenure? Could it be he did not deserve it.
Should you automatically get tenure if you are black because of the racial injustices of the past?
Maybe if he had ran his own blog way back in 1979, where he could constantly denounce his university as racists, and could ask people who know nothing about his academic qualifications, or teaching skills, to send emails of support to the University of Kentucky on his behalf, he would have obtained tenure. Too bad.
This man deserved tenure and it shows what universities are doing to black faculty all around the nation. Speaking up against a campuses racism should not be grounds for dismissal. Even they themselves admit that they have serious problems with racial discrimination. Syracuse was caught up in a national racial controversy 3 years ago and the problem is only getting worse with denials.
It still does not get to the heart of the issue: Why should there be such a thing as tenure anyway?
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