Tenured Art History faculty told they will be let go

By Erin McGuinness | Published by February 6, 2020

Gov. Phil Murphy, the  University Senate, concerned Kean students and professors from the academic departments of other New Jersey public universities have been reacting negatively to President Dawood Farahi’s decision to retrench the university’s tenured Art History faculty.   

Dr. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg, Dr. Marguerite Mayhall and Dr. Lewis Kachur, Kean’s only tenured Art History professors, were informed of their retrenchment via email on Dec 20. Retrenchment of tenured faculty, which is a layoff, can be justified for financial or programmatic reasons as outlined in their union contracts, according to the professors, but the letters did not give specifics for the decision. The university later said the program is and has been struggling financially — a claim the faculty disputes.

The Kean Federation of Teachers, along with students and faculty members, attended Gov. Phil Murphy’s town hall meeting in Maplewood on Jan 29 to raise awareness about this issue and to ask the Governor to “Please Save Art History at Kean University.” The governor commented publicly that he would look into the situation and develop a plan for action. 

The three tenured professors first spoke before the University Senate on Jan 21 to defend their program, jobs and the future of their students. The University Senate, which has authority in academic matters and is supposed to be consulted on the elimination of programs, was not consulted in the retrenchment decision,  said James Castiglione, KFT president. The Board of Trustees is also required to vote on program elimination, though the announcement to cut was made before a board vote was taken, Castiglione said.

Students and members of the senate wore blue “I Am Art History” buttons in support of the department and its members. Thankful alumna and students of the Art History program, some in tears,  pleaded with the Senate to push forward a resolution urging the Board of Trustees to delay the retrenchment decision.

On Feb. 4, the University Senate voted 17 to four to draft a letter to the Board of Directors outlining “the bypassing of the Senate with regards to Art History, in violation of the principles of shared governance,” said Constance Hasset-Walker, University Senate chair. 

The letter will be voted on on Feb 18. Art History departments from public universities including The College of New Jersey, Rutgers University and New Jersey City University have sent letters to the Senate in support of Art History colleagues at Kean University. The letters will be shown at the next Board of Trustees meeting on March 9. 

There are no legitimate financial reasons to eliminate the Art History program, according to calculations performed by the KFT. About 700 students enroll in Art History courses each year, and the program makes a profit of more than $840,000 per year, according to the calculations. The Art History program is run at no cost to the university.

In an email to all faculty and staff at Kean, University Labor Council Ken Green argued that Kean has to support growing programs and Art History is not one of them.

“To best serve our students in growing programs, we must discontinue programs that have little or no potential of success,” Green said in his email. “Art History, by all objective measures, is one such program.”

The university is open to alternate solutions at this time, Green said. 

 In 2016, the Board of Trustees voted to eliminate Art History as a major, instead of dissolving the program to a minor. Since this decision, the number of Art History minors has increased by 18 percent, Tuerk-Stonberg said to the senate.

 In 2017, Kean announced its intention to reassign faculty in Art History, but only Katchur was given non-teaching related work such as advising the internship students and doing administrative work. He was permitted to teach one course on a fluke during the Fall 2017 semester because the university had difficulties hiring an adjunct, he said. Katchur has been blocked from teaching 14 Art History courses since he said. He noted that as a long-time professor at Kean, he is the highest-paid professor in the Art History department — a salary that he continued to accrue during reassignment. 

The KFT filed a complaint to the state, and in November a grievance process proved that contractually the university was not permitted to reassign more than 50 percent of Katchur’s duties to non-teaching related work because he is a professor. A full-time faculty member is required to teach four classes per semester. As a result of this decision, Katchur is now allowed to teach two Art History courses.

On Dec 18, Tuerk-Stonberg and Mayhall were informed that they would also be reassigned to non-teaching duties and only permitted to teach two courses during the spring 2020 semester. The retrenchment notices came two days later. 

Art History courses are a requirement for the accreditation of five different Kean University programs; Fine Arts, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Graphic Arts and Architecture. There are about 650 students majoring in these programs. 

“Art History courses and the Art History minor will continue to be offered at Kean to support the requirements of the General Education, Fine and Studio Arts and Design programs,” Suzanne Bousquet, Vice President of Academic Affairs, said in an email to students. Faculty and staff. “The labor issue has no implications whatsoever for students taking Art History courses this semester or in the future.”

Design and Fine Arts programs at Kean are accredited through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, which requires ten to 15% of course work to be Art History, Tuerk-Stonberg said. The courses are expected to be taught by professors with Doctorates of Philosophy in their field. It is difficult to find qualified Art History adjuncts that meet the requirements listed by the NASAD, Castiglione said. 

“You can’t run a program if you don’t have resident faculty,” he said. 

Without full-time faculty to run the program, it is very likely to fail and die out, he said. 

The next evaluation for Kean by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the accreditation agency in charge of New Jersey colleges, is in 2021-2022. Without accreditation, an institution’s credits are untransferable to other colleges or master’s programs, and the university loses eligibility for federal funding. Kean was granted a 10-year-long accreditation in 2012 after serving a probation period for violating some accreditation standards. 

Cutting Art History is an elitist action, the professors argue. Art History programs have been cut at several lower-tier universities throughout the country, making the only students with access to a liberal arts education those from elite universities, typically from higher class socio-economic families, Mayhall said to the senate. 

“An introduction to art history can unleash what college professors all wish for their students, and something Kean University used to encourage: a desire for lifelong learning,” she said. 

Students and faculty in support of the Art History program are continuing their efforts to convince the university to revisit the decision. 

“We’re hopeful that with educating our own administration and getting outside entities to pressure the university to do the right thing for our students and our staff, we’re cautiously optimistic that we can save the program in some form,” Castiglione said. 

 

This current version is updated from the original posted on Feb. 6, 2020.

 

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