An associate professor is facing heat from administration after claiming a colleague has “blatant racist bias” and is using “the tenure and promotion process to smash to smithereens the work of black faculty.”

History associate professor Bruce Tyler emailed the Arts and Sciences faculty list-serv Feb. 15, saying history professor Mark Blum is not fit to re-establish and lead U of L’s chapter of American Association of University Professors due to past treatment of minority faculty seeking tenure.

“Below is a body of evidence from his service on the History Department Personnel Committee in two crucial cases involving minority faculty members that clearly demonstrates that he is not suitable to be part of the AAUP much less lead it,” Tyler’s email said. “Blum’s record of abusing faculty members is dismal and aggressively hostile against African-Americans such as Dr. Raphael Njoku and Dr. Bruce M. Tyler.”

Tyler’s email detailed Njoku’s path to early tenure, which Tyler claims the Blum-led personnel committee initially denied before being overriden by faculty. Tyler argued Njoku’s body of work was worthy of early tenure, but the personnel committee did not grant it. Tyler claims this is because of Blum’s “blatant racial bias.”

Njoku received early tenure before leaving U of L in June 2012, when Tyler says he was “forced to resign or be fired.” Njoku is now a professor at Idaho State University. He did not reply to requests for comments.

Tyler also mentioned he is also a victim of the allegedly racist committee, signing emails “Bruce M. Tyler who should be Full prof. but was robbed of it by crooked dealings.”

“Anyone who knows me knows I am not a racist,” Blum said in an email to the Cardinal. “Tyler’s breach of the rules of confidentiality will have their own consequences.” ...