Case Western Reserve University downgrades tenure-track African American history professor position

Related Link CWRU needs a full-time, tenure-track African-American history professor By Ted Steinberg 

Case Western Reserve University officials want to switch a tenure-track African-American history professorship to a two-year visiting position, despite the school’s insistence that diversity and inclusion efforts are top priorities.

CWRU’s student population is majority white; 3 percent of faculty and 6 percent of students are black. The university launched a push to attract a more diverse student body and improve campus life for those students. The university’s leader for diversity and inclusion is leaving, and the school has a nationwide search to replace her.

The decision todowngrade a professorship in this climate is unacceptable, argue some students and professors.

“The administration wants to hire a second-class citizen of the university with no job security to teach and research in an area of study that is not only vital for college students but that requires a certain amount of intellectual risk-taking, something that is unlikely to happen if the faculty member is not at least offered a tenure line," writes Ted Steinberg, a CWRU history professor, in an opinion piece for cleveland.com.

The question is whether a two-year visiting professor would have the academic freedom to shape the research in African American history and speak up on difficult decisions. ...