University Senate goes to Board of Trustees over Art History retrenchment

By Zoe Strozewski | Published by May 8, 2020

The Kean University Senate sent a letter to the Board of Trustees that meets on Monday to not allow a controversial retrenchment of the art history program’s tenured faculty and copied the correspondence to both the state and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which accredits the university. 

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is important to Kean because it can grant or strip schools of accreditation, an important certification that determines whether a school is granted federal aid or whether other colleges recognize its credits for transfer or graduate school acceptance. 

In 2011, Middle States warned Kean it was in danger of losing accreditation according to Middle States website. However, it never happened and Kean’s accreditation was reaffirmed in 2017. 

The board meeting on Monday, May 11 will be virtual and the agenda includes a resolution “authorizing the university to suspend various academic programs based on long-term underperformance and financial exigency and take additional action to reduce operating costs in response to COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Although no one —  neither the University Senate nor the Kean Federation of Teachers — was informed of the resolution or what programs are targeted, the Art History program’s three tenured faculty were informed in December that they would be “retrenched,” meaning terminated. However, following an outcry from students and faculty that drew the attention of Gov. Murphy and others, it appeared that the faculty had a reprieve when an agreement was struck with the university. 

Ultimately, the Senate made the decision at its April 21 meeting to send the letter after they came to the consensus that President Dawood Farahi wasn’t planning on signing the agreement. Margaret McCorry, director of media relations, said she wasn’t aware of any updates regarding the retrenchment after the letter was sent.

The Senate’s letter was also copied to the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, which advises Gov. Phil Murphy on “higher education initiatives and incentive programs,” according to its website. 

According to the letter, the increase in class size and replacement of the only three tenured faculty with adjuncts would lower the quality of the art history program.  The letter also cited the administration’s violation of shared governance in its failure to consult the Senate on the decision — a citation that Kean has gotten in the past from Middle States. 

“This matter is of such deep and urgent concern that the University Senate has taken the unusual step of deciding, by a vote of the majority of the Senators, to not only write to you, the Board of Trustees, but to send a copy of this letter to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and to the New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education,” the letter said. “It is our fervent hope that in doing so we have communicated to you the urgency of this matter and that you will heed our warning and act quickly and decisively to halt these changes to the Art History program before the Middle States self-study fully begins.”

The letter also pointed out that the retrenchment would take place after Farahi steps down on June 30, leaving the new president without a say in the outcome. 

“We urge you to allow the new president to weigh in on this important decision that has several ramifications for the entire university,” the letter said.

Retrenchment can be defined as “the reduction of costs or spending in response to economic difficulty,” according to Lexico.com, although programmatic problems can also be used as reasons for retrenchment. However, the Senate’s letter includes an appendix with data showing Kean accrues gains, not losses, from the art history program in multiple ways.

A section in the appendix that measures the programmatic value of the art history program stated that six of Kean’s programs require 10-15 percent of coursework to be in art history in order to be accredited, which applies to 647 students in 2020.  It also demonstrated that those with an education in art history will see increased job security in the future because of the creative and visual skills it builds and the projected employment growth of 9% for art history, which is higher than any other field, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

A chart in the appendix demonstrates that between the art history minors, the 15-degree programs that require art history courses, and other sources of revenue, the program has a net profit of $280,510 at least and $974,210 at most per year. This is after the salaries of the three faculty set to be retrenched are subtracted.

The art history program has been a point of focus for the Senate the entire spring semester. After a one-sentence email informed the three art history faculty of their retrenchment without stating why on Dec. 18, the Senate heard testimony from them and others upset by the sudden change at the first meeting of the semester on Jan. 21.

In their next meeting on Feb. 4, the Senate voted 17-4 to write a letter to the Board of Trustees and copy Middle States and the NJ Office of the Secretary of Higher Education on the letter, according to the meeting minutes. The Senate tabled the letter at their next meeting per recommendation from the union. 
The April 7 meeting minutes indicate that there was an agreement drafted with the administration, and the Senate had sent President Dawood Farahi a legal document to extend the art history faculty’s jobs through next spring, but he never signed it.

Dr. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg, one of the tenured art history faculty set to be retrenched along with Dr. Marguerite Mayhall and Dr. Lewis Kachur on Sept. 2, said that she was concerned for the students minoring in art history and any others majoring in subjects that require art history courses when the administration did not sign the agreement.

“I also worried for myself and for my colleagues, but not just because of the income loss, but for me much more importantly because of the loss of my identity as a teacher,” Tuerk-Stonberg said. “I love my job. Sharing my enthusiasm for beautiful art is my passion; I am not alone in this.”

Tuerk-Stonberg also lamented potentially losing the opportunity to spread her passion and build relationships with students through a shared love of art.

“I love connecting with students and sharing the life lessons that come along with discussions of art,” she continued. “That connection with students adds significant meaning to my life that I would mourn deeply if lost.”

Despite the possibility of losing her job, Tuerk-Stonberg said she has been uplifted by the continuous show of support from the Kean community, including a student petition that was signed by over 4,000 people, letters from hundreds of students and protest art posted around the campus.

“The students have risen–like the Great Wave from Hokusai’s Japanese color print–in one strong voice of love and respect for art history,” Tuerk-Stonberg said. “More than half of the university faculty from across campus have reached out to me personally with thoughtful, constructive, and ethical support, and a tremendous amount of personal energy and time to save art history. The faculty senate letter is only one result of this massive support, and in this moment of strife I’m forming even deeper bonds over our collective commitment to art.”

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