Popular professor faces dismissal

Author: Kathryn Flagg

When Christine Bachman '09.5 found out last month that Assistant Professor of Sociology Laurie Essig had been fired, her first response, she said, was disbelief. That such a wildly popular professor would be dismissed was unthinkable.

"It was a huge crush," said Bachman. "It was a huge blow."

In what was, according to Essig's students and departmental colleagues, a highly unexpected decision, the three faculty-elected members of the Reappointments Committee recommended to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz in December that Essig's tenure-track contract not be renewed. The decision could mean the end of Essig's academic career at Middlebury, but Essig's staunch supporters question the validity and wisdom of the recommendation. For opponents of the recommendation, Essig's review raises more troubling questions about the transparency of the review process and the status of academic freedom at the College.

"We are shocked and saddened that the considered views of both her departmental colleagues and her students could be so readily turned aside in the decision making process," wrote Burke Rochford, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, in an e-mail. "Members of the department in no way anticipated this negative outcome."

Equally upset was Sujata Moorti, chair of the Women's and Gender Studies (WAGS) Program, in which Essig routinely teaches. "The decision is a devastating blow to the program," she wrote in an e-mail. "The decision not to renew Professor Essig's contract shatters any hope of expansion or stability in the WAGS curriculum."

Playing Defense

In the wake of the decision, several of Essig's students and colleagues have leapt to defend her progressive, arguably provocative teaching style, which allegedly came under attack during her review.

"A number of students have indicated to me that their lives have been changed after taking a course from Laurie," Rochford said.

Essig's colleagues also praised her for her significant dedication to ensuring the success of her students.

"I deal with a lot of students who are on the margins," said Assistant Professor of Writing Hector Vila. "I have consistently placed those kids in her classes, and they have consistently come out with the same assessment: 'Wow.' I can't bring a kid in here as a witness of a bad experience. Just the opposite."

For students on campus, Essig's dedication to the learning experience outside of the classroom served as an equally important reminder of her role as a teacher.

"As far as the faculty goes, she's easily one of the most if not the most supportive member for queer students, the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA) and Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM)," said MOQA Co-President Ryan Tauriainen '08.

"You're not just getting rid of a teacher," he said. "You're getting rid of an advocate."

Questioning the Review Process

In light of her popularity, the confusion over Essig's review decision has some supporters questioning the very process by which professors are reviewed at the College - a process administrators were quick to defend as necessarily confidential.

"It's a personnel issue. Those are usually confidential," said Liebowitz on Jan. 8, shortly before meeting with a small group of students who contacted him about Essig's appeal. "The review process in general in academia is a highly guarded process."

In the meeting that followed, Liebowitz and Provost Alison Byerly faced heated and increasingly frustrated questions from the approximately 20 students in attendance. While neither administrator could speak to Essig's case specifically, both spoke at length on the College's system of faculty review, seeking to clarify what is, for many students, a murky process - and one that Molli Freeman-Lynde '08, Essig's research assistant and thesis advisee, noted has limitations.

"This process puts a lot of faith in the idea that three professors from across academic disciplines can necessarily recognize good teaching in a field they're not familiar with," she said.

The majority of questions raised at Tuesday's meeting focused on the criteria by which professors are evaluated, though students also pressed Liebowitz about the possibility of institutional bias in assessing what Alexandra Garcia '07.5 termed "progressive professors."

Moorti raised similar concerns in an e-mail to The Middlebury Campus. "I have emphasized to administrators that we need to assess feminist pedagogy by different measures than what we use for 'mainstream' courses," she wrote. "There is a vast body of scholarship and research conducted on various aspects pertaining to the teaching and assessment of feminism. I believe that none of this valuable scholarship was consulted before the Reappointments Committee assessed Professor Essig."

Concerns about the tenure review process - including the objectivity of evaluation, the punitive nature of the assessment and the transparency of committee decisions - are not new to the College, but Liebowitz acknowledged that the attention Essig's case has brought to the issue could continue to generate broader discussion of such concerns.

"I don't think this going to be dropped," Liebowitz said at Tuesday's meeting. "There are a lot of people asking similar questions [about the review process]. It's not out of the question that faculty need to take stock and step back."

From the faculty ranks, Vila echoed this sentiment. "Something there went wrong," he said. "If anything were to happen and we weren't to revisit the process, then it will have meant nothing. What Laurie's going through … has to mean something."

Broader Ramifications?

The ramifications of Essig's dismissal remain to be seen, but professors like Moorti and Rochford and students intimately involved in the the WAGS and Sociology programs have expressed concern about the hole Essig's absence could create in the system.

"Since Professor Essig was primarily assessed negatively on WAGS-affiliated courses, I would not be surprised if junior faculty hesitate to teach gender or women's issues in the future," wrote Moorti. "The lack of institutional/administrative support for WAGS-affiliated faculty also signals the College's lack of commitment to this important area of the academy."

Moorti also worried that Essig's open criticisms of the College's administration could discourage other members of the faculty from speaking out, as Essig has, on political issues.

"Professor Essig has been a vocal critic of the Rehnquist chair, the College's policy on Marine Recruitment, the homophobia prevalent on campus and in general she has emphasized the need for us to rethink how we define and understand the term diversity," Moorti wrote. "I am certain that with this decision, junior faculty would hesitate to take a public stance on any divisive issue or challenge the administration."

For students in the WAGS and Sociology departments, Essig's potential departure is also cause for concern when considering departmental continuity.

"Of the professors I've had since coming to Middlebury in the Sociology and Anthropology department, only two are on campus this year and one of those is a new professor," said Freeman-Lynde.

"Who in the Sociology Department can I turn to if she's gone?" asked Bachman. "These are concerns that I'm sure a lot of students are feeling."

This perceived turnover in the Sociology and WAGS programs has Freeman-Lynde, Bachman and other student supporters speculating about patterns in review decisions for provocative professors.

"It seems to me that Middlebury College has a pattern of firing or denying tenure to any professors - in my experience, in the Sociology department - who do not fit the mold, who challenge the dominant structures and who teach thei
r students to think critically about our society or who use the classroom as a place to explore power," said Freeman-Lynde.

Student Mobilization

At the forefront of present student concern, however, is the more immediate goal of saving a popular and, Essig's supporters argue, dynamic professor.

After learning of the Reappointment Committee's decision, Bachman and Baylie Roth '09.5 formed a group on Facebook that quickly attracted over 150 members. From the living room of the Chellis House, the hub of the WAGS program on campus, Bachman, Roth and a small contingent of other concerned students mapped a strategy recently for their response. Current plans call for letter-writing campaigns, petitions and office hour protests - a "creative way to bother people," said Bachman.

Although quick to acknowledge the challenges they face, these students remain largely optimistic about their ability to affect change in Essig's appeal.

"Even though a lot of this is about powerful structures and powerful institutions, there are basically five people who have a say in this decision," said Freeman-Lynde, referring to the three members of the Reappointments Committee, Byerly and Liebowitz. "It's pretty rare for an activist to have such open access to the people whose minds they have to change."

Though Essig, like the other professors immediately involved in the review process, could not comment specifically on her case, she said that she is "humbled and awed" by the outpouring of support she has seen from students and other members of the College community. The student response, she said, has been "really, incredibly gratifying."

"It's been amazing teaching Middlebury kids," said Essig in an interview with The Campus. "I've loved every second of it."