Two African-American faculty members denied tenure at Emerson College last May are filing complaints against the school, claiming they were rejected because of their race.
Roger House, an assistant professor in Emerson's Department of Journalism, filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) last year. Pierre Desir, an assistant professor in the school's Department of Visual and Media Arts, told the Daily he plans to file a similar complaint with the MCAD this week.
Three other faculty members were up for tenure alongside House and Desir in May 2008. Those three -- all white -- received it.
Both professors pointed to Emerson's historical lack of diversity within the ranks of its tenured faculty. Emerson has never both tenured and promoted a black male professor in its 129-year history, "a troubling pattern," House told the Daily in an e-mail.
Emerson College denied any allegations of racial bias in an official statement released two weeks ago.
"Each tenure decision of the College is based on consideration of the individual circumstances surround [sic] a candidacy, without reference to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.," David Rosen, Emerson's vice president for public affairs, said in the statement.
House disagrees, saying that he was held to a seemingly arbitrarily higher standard.
House, who applied for tenure in the fall of 2007, said in an e-mail that he was "supported by the students, department, department chair and college-wide faculty."
But while he believes he had "a good case" for tenure, the dean of the School of Communication, Janis Andersen, recommended that tenure be denied on the basis of House's unsatisfactory publication output. Vice President of Academic Affairs Linda Moore, President Jacqueline Liebergott and the Board of Trustees all supported the decision.
House objected to what he believed was an unfair standard set by the university.
Andersen "called for a level of publications that seemed appropriate for a major research institution like Harvard, but unreasonable for a media and arts college with heavy teaching and service obligations," House said.
House's complaint filed with the MCAD asserts that the college's evaluation standards are "unevenly and inconsistently applied," and that Emerson denied his tenure on the basis of "arbitrary and questionable criteria."
Desir said he experienced a similar fate in the tenure evaluation process, claiming more was asked of him than of any other professor.
Desir, who has been a professor at Emerson since 2002, told the Daily that he was hired to teach filmmaking and cinematography, but he has only taught cinematography classes since he joined the school.
During Desir's tenure evaluation, those evaluating his tenure chose to ignore his work as a professional cinematographer in his portfolio, Desir said. Without considering his cinematography experience -- Desir was in the midst of shooting two feature films at the time -- the professor believes that he did not have enough creative work to be granted tenure.
"Cinematography is what I do; it's what I teach," Desir said. "To ask me to complete as much as those who teach film, on top of my cinematography work, is to ask more of me than any other professor."
In 1977, Assistant Professor Mike Brown, himself an African-American, was denied tenure from Emerson. He filed a successful complaint with the Massachusetts Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, becoming the first tenured black male professor at Emerson.
Although the Emerson Faculty Handbook states that "advancement to associate professor accompanies the granting of tenure," Brown was tenured but never promoted.
In the college's official statement, Rosen affirms Emerson's commitment to furthering diversity among its faculty. "The college is deeply committed to recruiting promoting [sic] more faculty of color as stated in the recently released strategic plan for diversity at the college," he said. "The overarching goal of achieving diversity does not apply in any direct way to individual tenure decisions."
Rosen declined to comment further.
Both House and Desir will leave Emerson at the end of the current semester, they said. Desir is looking for teaching positions at other schools but is having trouble due to the challenging economic climate.
House hopes that the MCAD investigation, which may take a year, will allow him to keep his job. "I love teaching history at Emerson," he said.
