Washington Square News
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NEWS
NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020
Edited by MATTHEW FISCHETTI and TRACE MILLER
Students Question Bias as NYU German Denies Tenure To Yet another Female Professor By AARUSHI SHARMA Deputy News Editor Many within and outside of the NYU community are questioning the NYU Department of German’s decision to deny Professor Alys George a tenured position. George joined NYU as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Assistant Professor for the German department in 2011. While at NYU, she won the Golden Dozen Teaching Award in 2014. Eight years later, she applied for tenure in 2019, but was rejected. George proceeded to appeal the decision, which reinstated the earlier decision. Arne Sanders, a graduate student in the German department who has previously worked with George, said that the news of George’s tenure denial came as a shock to him. “I had a class together with her,” Sander said. “She was definitely among the most important people for me in the department intellectually.” “I would have never guessed,” Sanders added. “I also didn’t really believe it. At first, I was like OK it’s clearly a mistake. I was 100% sure that this was a mistake.” While Sanders is unaware of the details of the tenure process, he was surprised the department was ready to part with George. “I have no idea about the laws or policies, or how this thing works,” Sanders said. “I couldn’t think of a better professor, honestly … I couldn’t see [why] you would not want to have her in the department. It’s almost crazy to me.” Sanders commended George for her work as Director of Undergraduate Studies, especially with the transition to remote classes due to the outbreak of COVID-19. “I don’t think that our transition to remote teaching would have been possible in the same way,” Sanders said. “It was pretty smooth and she was really there for everybody. She must have been working
24/7 and it was crazy how much support we got from her. I don’t think this whole language program which the German Department is absolutely dependent on [...] her. It’s just unimaginable.” Sanders was among 44 people in the NYU community — including several current and recent graduate students of NYU German, many Comparative Literature and History graduate students and recent alumni — who wrote a letter to Dean Antonio Merlo contesting George’s tenure decision. However, Dean Merlo had not assumed deanship at the time of George’s appeal. He was brought in to replace Dean Thomas Carew. A source approached WSN to share the details of Professor George’s review process and suggested apparent malpractice. Some of the sources in this piece wish to remain anonymous due to fear of retribution from NYU. The sources stated that George had faced intra-department tensions against a person — whom they did not wish to name — which may have influenced her tenure decision. On Apr. 2, the T-Faculty Senators Council’s Grievance Committee sent a memorandum to Provost Katherine Fleming stating that “in the majority of the cases the committee has found that proper procedures were in fact followed, but concerns remain.” The council reviews denial of tenure appeals at the University level. “It is definitely against NYU policy for spouses to hold simultaneous administrative positions in the same department,” they wrote in an email to WSN. “During the year of Alys’ tenure review, [Elisabeth] Strowick and [Andea] Krauss were Chair and DGS (director of graduate studies) respectively.” “There was special dispensation for this by GSAS, because there were few faculty members available in the department to fill these positions,” the source continued. “That year, Strowick was an Acting
Chair. Currently, Strowick is officially appointed Chair of German by GSAS, while her spouse Krauss is presently DGS — which is properly speaking in violation of GSAS policy.” While Professor Krauss did not serve on the committee reviewing George’s case, professor Strowick did. Strowick became the chair of the review committee, replacing Professor Christopher Wood. NYU’s Academic Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment policy explicitly states that a conflict of interest arises with respect to “immediate family members” which, according to the policy, includes spouses. Siarhei Biareishyk, a visiting associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, echoed the anonymous source’s sentiments. Biareishyk earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Comparative Literature in 2017. Although he has not worked with George in any official capacity, he considers her to be one of his mentors. “There is kind of a systematic abandonment of graduate and undergraduate advisors by more senior professors,” he said. “People like Alys George, who are willing to step up to this labor — that is ultimately counted against her ... In the academic circles where I am, it is a running joke that the sure way to get your tenure rejected is to get a teaching award.” He also shared our sources’ concern for potential malpractice regarding Professor George’s case. “The particular dynamics of this department — the German Department at NYU — these people should be submitted to Title IX,” he said. “There is no doubt for me.” The German Department previously came under fire for its continued employment of Professor Avital Ronell, who was found guilty of sexually harassing her graduate advisee. Christiane Frey, who was previously denied tenure by the German depart-
ment, was one of Professor Biareishyk’s advisors while he was at NYU. Frey said that he has noticed a malicious pattern of tenure approvals against women. “Women are under much more pressure.” Frey said. “In the last three tenure track cases, the German Department turned down two female professors, while their male peer was accepted,” Professor Biareishyk said. “In my opinion, all three were qualified, but Professor George was most qualified.” George published her first book, “The Naked Truth: Viennese Modernism and the Body” earlier this year with the University of Chicago Press. The book received acclaim and several positive reviews soon after its release. Biareishyk pointed out that publishing her first book with the University of Chicago Press is an achievement in and of itself due to the status of the publisher. He also expressed doubt that Professor George was “not taken seriously academically”. “If you talk to people in her field, her book is going to be a paradigm changing book, it came out with the best press, better than any other publication in this department for years,” he said. “Once people in her field, in my field, found out that she did not get tenure, everyone was appalled.” Additional sources, who also requested anonymity due to fear of retribution from the University, suggested that institutions might be slashing their tenure acceptance rates in order to elevate their status as a competitive academic institution. “The implication is that a high achieving and much-respected scholar in her field would be evaluated on the basis of NYU administration’s desire to appear competitive with institutions like Yale and Harvard, who have notoriously f-cked up tenure-granting processes, including deliberately denying tenure to early career faculty and then poaching tenured fac-
IMAGE COURTESY OF NYU
Alys George, the Director of Undergraduate Studies and an Assistant Professor within the German Department. George recently became involved in a debacle over tenure.
ulty from other institutions,” they wrote in an email to WSN. “The point being, NYU may be intentionally (artificially) shrinking its tenure lines in order to appear competitive.” In a message published on the University website in October 2019, Fleming questioned if NYU’s tenure rate is concerning. “Tenure is intended to mark scholarly excellence and work that is at a discipline’s leading edge,” the message read. “In the abstract, should it be a concern that NYU’s tenure rate has been above 90% for the last seven years, significantly higher than that of institutions we think of as peers?” The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences did not respond to WSN’s request for comment at the time of publication. Email Aarushi Sharma at asharma@nyunews.com.
NYU RAs Attend Training With Controversial Resources By ALEXANDRIA JOHNSON Deputy Managing Editor
SEAN NESMITH
A screenshot shared over Twitter titled: “’clear language on slavery’ resources provided by nyu residential life.” The information was shared during a RA training meeting.
NYU Resident Assistants were called into a meeting on Sept. 23, the same day a Kentucky grand jury declined to indict officers Jonathan Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankinson for the killing of Breonna Taylor. CAS junior Sean Nesmith knew something was wrong when some of his friends, who are Resident Assistants, tweeted about leaving. Nesmith listened to the training on FaceTime with one of his friends; they sent him screenshots of pictures referenced in the training. One picture equated slaves to hostages and slave catchers to police officers. According to Nesmith, paraprofessionals asked RAs to define white supremacy. Some of the Black RAs left during the training because they felt uncomfortable. Nesmith, who was reluctant to share this information with WSN and NYU Local, wrote a Medium article titled “NYU Doesn’t Care About their Black RAs” in
response to the training, since RAs are not allowed to speak to the press. “I’m good friends with RAs, and it’s disheartening that they are not able to talk to the press.” Nesmith said. “I know several RAs who quit their position, and I thought it was imperative to write the narrative.” WSN reached out to NYU Black Violets, an organization whose mission is to advocate on behalf of Black students at the University. While they did not want to speak on behalf of the RAs, they were disappointed with the session and are currently working with NYU’s Office of Residential Life and Housing Services to rectify the situation. WSN also reached out to RA Voices, but they did not respond at the time of publication. After speaking with IRHC and Black Violets about Wednesday’s training, NYU RA Council released a statement via Instagram on Saturday afternoon. “The Black Violets engagement floor is still an ongoing project and is slated to start within both FYRE and TRUE halls during the 2021-2022 academic year,” the statement read.
The statement also discusses having a student-led diversity advisory board starting next semester. There will be a meeting on Sept. 28 where RAs will learn about how they should communicate to residents about the New York Police Department, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and racial bias. Nesmith wants NYU Residential Life and Housing Services to create resources for RAs so they feel supported. He also feels that the university should value input from groups like NYU Black Violets, RA Voices and RA Council to make these changes. “I would like to see accountability, and the first step of that is NYU administration acknowledging they made a mistake,” Nesmith said. “Some RAs are trying to tackle cross-dialogue but they do not have the proper resources to do so.” Vanessa Handy and Julia Santiago contributed reporting for this article. Email Alexandria Johnson at ajohnson@nyunews.com.