CLAS RESOLUTION--PASSED MARCH 17, 2003

WHEREAS the college’s handling of the KC Johnson tenure case was described by: retired Brooklyn professor and longtime PSC grievance counselor Jerome Sternstein as "the most corrupted tenure review process I have ever come across"; University of Pennsylvania professor Erin O’Connor as "an exemplary instance of the sort of petty, internecine corruption that runs rife in academe, where accountability is minimal and the power to destroy careers is correspondingly high"; and Swarthmore College professor Timothy Burke as "one more arrow in the quiver of academia’s critics, one more revelation of the corruption of the profession as a whole, one more reason to question whether tenure ever serves the purpose for which it is allegedly designed"; and

WHEREAS the college’s handling of the Michael Cholbi reappointment case prompted the New York Sun to editorialize, "Brooklyn’s students deserve a college that’s run less like a poorly managed country club and more like a world-class university"; and

WHEREAS the abuse of the "collegiality" criterion violates the contractual obligation to Brooklyn College students, as expressed in the Bulletin, that "the tradition of the University as a sanctuary of academic freedom and center of informed discussion is an honored one, to be guarded vigilantly"; and

WHEREAS the abuse of the "collegiality" criterion violates the provisions in the CLAS Student Government constitution stating, "Nor shall any person be denied admission to Brooklyn College or its campus, nor be dismissed or denied employment on account of his/her ideas or beliefs"; and

WHEREAS, the abuse of the "collegiality" criterion violates the provisions in the CLAS Student Government constitution stating, "Every student has the right to quality education"; and

WHEREAS, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein resolved the Johnson tenure controversy by appointing a select panel of distinguished scholars from other CUNY institutions; therefore

BE IT RESOLVED that the CLAS student government urges Chancellor Goldstein to appoint a select panel of distinguished scholars from other CUNY institutions to review the Brooklyn College personnel process and to recommend improvements therein.