Thread by @TheFIREorg

Faculty at @NYUniversity shouldn’t be punished for delivering an education worthy of “a private university in the public service.” /1

In a letter to #NYU protesting the due process-free firing of chemistry professor Maitland Jones, Jr. after students complained his #orgo class was too hard, @thefireorg addresses the implications for students, faculty, and society at large. /2
thefire.org/fire-letter-to…

NYU senior lecturer @MoleListon summed up the “many significant issues” raised by Jones’ case: “student-driven faculty dismissal, demands for grade inflation, the value of organic chemistry in undergraduate pre-health education, and the precarity of contract faculty”... /3

Members of NYU’s Full-Time Continuing Contract Faculty Senators Council are demanding an investigation and have asked the university “why Jones was not given the right to file a formal complaint about the circumstances surrounding his termination.” /4
nyunews.com/news/2022/10/2…

The bureaucratization of higher ed contributes to these issues when ballooning numbers of administrators—most well-meaning—treat their institution primarily as a business to be run with a brand to maintain, and students as customers to be satisfied at any cost. /5

But the bottom line for administrators at a college or university shouldn’t be money or placement in U.S. News’ rankings, but how the education it delivers improves society. It follows then, that educators’ rights must be paramount. /6

In a @bostonglobe op-ed printed today, professor Jones urged administrators to “stand back from purely academic matters and to support the faculty” — both tenured and not, and commit to high educational standards. /7
bostonglobe.com/2022/10/20/opi…

Without those standards, Jones says “we as a nation will not produce those individuals — doctors, engineers, scientists, – citizens! — who will guide us toward a better future.” /8

FIRE has given NYU a week to tell us whether they will do so. /9