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http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/03/18/provost_designee_withdraws_at_kennesaw_state_amid_controversy_over_journal_citation_of_marx
The Would-Be Provost Who Quoted Marx
March 18, 2011
"In the university, the higher up the hierarchical structure, the
more one has decision-making power and the further one is from the
actual 'work' (discovering and disseminating knowledge)."
Timothy J. L. Chandler, the co-author of a 1998 journal article
with that quote about university hierarchies, is going to stay a
step closer to actual work. On Thursday, he announced that he is
turning down the position of provost at Kennesaw State University
-- in part because of furor set off in the local area over the
article, which applies class analysis and several times cites Marx.
"I have decided it is in the best interest of Kennesaw State
University for me to withdraw at this time. I feel strongly about
the commitment that I made to elevating Kennesaw State
University’s academic stature. However, I have now come to believe
that the recent distractions caused by external forces would
interfere with my effectiveness as provost," Chandler said in a
statement released by Kennesaw State. Kent State University, where
Chandler has worked for 20 years, most recently as senior
associate provost, announced that he would stay on in that
position and that "their loss is our gain."
Chandler's withdrawal came a week after he said he was not going
to be deterred by the local controversy, and after Kennesaw
State's president issued a statement defending the hiring.
Chandler said at the time that he was "not inclined to withdraw
from the provost position under the cloud of a Red scare."
Kennesaw State's announcement on Thursday said that the president.
Daniel S. Papp, "emphasized that Dr. Chandler’s decision to remain
at Kent State was strictly his own and is not related to any
viewpoints that Dr. Chandler has expressed in previous academic
work." (He has also been quoted in the local press as saying he
was surprised by Chandler's journal article.)
In an interview Thursday night, Chandler said that the experience
of being appointed at Kennesaw State and then feeling it was
necessary to withdraw left him with renewed appreciation of the
role of academic freedom, and some concerns about whether
academics have done a good enough job of explaining the nature of
scholarly writing to the public.
The news that someone withdrew as provost designee because of a
long-ago journal article prompted some Georgia professors to say
that academic freedom has taken a beating -- and disturbed some
experts on administrative searches.
A search consultant who asked not to be identified because of the
industry norm of not speaking about specific searches (and who
played no role in Kennesaw State's selection process) said that he
had never had a pick for a senior position feel pressured to
withdraw because of a past work of scholarship. The consultant
said that search committees of course talk about "fit" between a
candidate and an institution.
But he added that "I don't think a person's scholarship and
ability to administer" are correlated, and that the institutions
he works with "want an able administrator," and have no interest
in imposing "a political test." Institutions that let candidates
be discouraged because of their politics end up losing good talent
and "get what they deserve," he said.
The Column and the Article
Chandler's appointment at Kennesaw State seemed like a logical
move up, given that he had served in the provost's office at Kent
State, a growing public regional university. The controversy
started with a column in The Marietta Daily Journal, written by
three of the newspaper's top executives -- who did not respond to
request for comment for this article.
The headline of the article suggests that Kennesaw State might
need a new color (red) to go with its traditional black and gold.
The column goes on to give a series of citations of Marx or of
Marxist philosophy that appear in Chandler's 1998 journal article,
such as "Increased competition results in increased ethnicity and
racism." And: "Ownership is taken for granted in capitalistic
societies and is central to the accumulation of wealth and
domination. All ownership of land or material means of production
was at one time or another obtained by force." And: "While the
United States has the most sophisticated propaganda apparatus ever
assembled, it is also the most violent nation-state in history."
The column closed by wondering whether Kennesaw State's alumni and
business backers would want to work with the new provost. And in
case anyone missed the point, a follow-up column said that those
who wondered about the fate of Chandler's appointment were among
the "Kremlinologists" trying to figure out the situation. (The
columns also attacked Chandler for having had as his co-author a
Kent State professor who has argued for the possibility of Bush
administration complicity in the September 11 attacks, although it
should be noted that the journal article in question was written
several years before 9/11.) The original column was picked up by
right-leaning blogs, with posts such as "Southern university hires
Marxist provost?"
The article of Chandler's that led to the furor ran in The Journal
of Higher Education and is a critique of the way colleges and
universities have applied or failed to apply the ideas of Ernest
Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered. (The first page of the article
is available on JSTOR, and JSTOR subscribers can read the article
there.)
Boyer's work argued for a broader definition of scholarship, one
that would include research-based efforts related to pedagogy or
service, and that would get out of the tradition of defining
research contributions simply by the number of books published or
grants won. The article's analysis of Boyer's work suggests that
he didn't go far enough, saying that Boyer was only "tinkering"
with faculty reward systems, rather than considering larger
changes that are needed in higher education.
The article argues that "with little or no say in the distribution
of resources, faculty decision-making power regarding academic
matters has limited impact, at least to the extent that the latter
is dependent upon the former. In effect, faculty are given
decision-making power as long as they do not upset the social
order." To deal with this problem, the authors propose that "true
participatory democracy" be brought to the university.
"We suggest replacing career ladders where faculty rise through
the ranks to become administrators removed and isolated from the
real 'business' of the university, discovery and dissemination of
knowledge, with career lattices where administrative positions are
webs of roles that change hands and impose fewer limits on
individuals, their talents, and their interests. We envision a
university where talents better match with tasks, promotion and
tenure are reconceived, and a community of scholars works on
important problems using a broad array of techniques of discovery.
Furthermore, inter- and cross-disciplinary study would become far
more common as scholars became more problem-oriented and less
paradigm-restricted."
The Role of Academic Writing
In an interview Thursday night, Chandler said that in
administrative positions at Kent State, he has in fact promoted
collegial decision-making, but that he has also done all of the
kinds of things that come with academic hierarchies. He has hired
and fired, turned down budget requests, and so forth.
Looking at the reaction to his article, Chandler said that there
may be a lesson for academe. "I think it's probably incumbent on
us to explain the role of academic writing, and the role of
academic freedom -- of the idea of testing and pushing ideas, and
of encouraging people to think differently," he said. Many
non-academics view academic writing as literal "advocacy," he
said, in a way that isn't necessarily the case.
In that context, he said, quoting Marxist theory should be seen --
as is the case with him -- not as an endorsement of all things
Marx. "I see it as one lens through which we can observe and look
at the world we are trying to understand," especially with regard
to issues of social class. "I'm not saying it's the only way or
the best way, but it's a way, and those theories do have something
to offer," he said.
Some of the writing in Georgia critical of Chandler has noted that
he is a native of Britain -- "another strike," he quipped. He came
to the United States to earn his Ph.D. at Stanford University and
has stayed on, becoming a citizen. Much of his scholarship has
been on the role of athletics and education in society, and he is
the co-author or co-editor of the books Sport and Physical
Education: The Key Concepts, With God on Their Side: Sport in the
Service of Religion and Making Men: Rugby and Masculine Identity.
Chandler said that he thinks Britain may be more accepting of
Marxist scholarship because of the dominant role of class issues
in examining the country. "I think there has been a tradition of
listening to and understanding a broad range of ideas on class and
hierarchy," he said. "And remember where Marx wrote," he said.
The State of Academic Freedom
Hugh D. Hudson Jr., chair of history at Georgia State University
and executive secretary of the Georgia conference of the American
Association of University Professors, said that faculty members at
Kennesaw State are "very concerned" about the implications of what
happened to Chandler. "Public pressure can play an inordinate
role. Outsiders made it a very difficult position for him to come
into," Hudson said.
Hudson said that "it is the responsibility of the faculty to
remind the community" of the value of academic freedom. "It's
unfortunate that more people did not rise up in defense of
academic freedom."
An education professor who is part of the Marxian Analysis of
Society, Schools and Education Section of the American Educational
Research Association said she was saddened by what had happened to
Chandler (whom she doesn't know). "People think Marxism is the
same as Communism, and they are not," she said. "Using a Marxist
analysis just says that you know we have a class system and you
are looking at it, but class analysis has become a dirty word."
The professor asked not to be quoted by name because she does not
have tenure.
Another search consultant, who also has no ties to Kennesaw State
and asked not to be identified because of the industry standard of
not commenting on other searches, said she thought Chandler
"dodged a bullet." "I think it would have been dreadful for him,"
she said. "The local press would have hounded him, and you've got
people in legislatures these days looking for reasons to cut
higher ed. He would have been the whipping boy."
But this search consultant said that Kennesaw State may be the
real loser. "Would a really good candidate who values intelligent
intellectual discourse want to go there right now?" she said.
"They just cut their pool of good people dramatically."
As for Chandler, he said he was very happy to be back at Kent
State. "I'm in an incredibly supportive environment, and an
environment that values academic freedom," he said
Will he ever again apply for a provost's job? "Tonight might not
be the best time to ask me," he said. "If I do look again, I will
look very carefully at academic freedom as that is a critical
feature that means a lot to me."
— Scott Jaschik
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