Questions of Racial Discrimination on Tenure Unsettle DePaul
As DePaul University seeks to improve its academic standing and raise $250 million for capital projects and scholarships, public accusations of bias and discrimination in the tenure process continue to mount.
On Dec. 7, professors and students protested this year’s denial of tenure to two minorities, Quinetta Shelby, a black professor of chemistry, and Namita Goswami, an Indian professor of philosophy. Of more than 40 professors who applied for tenure this year, 6 were denied, all of them minorities. Last year, the five professors denied tenure were four women and one minority man.
Tensions have run high over the university’s tenure process since 2007, when Norman Finkelstein, a political science professor, was denied tenure amid controversy over his work, which accused Jews of exploiting the Holocaust for monetary gain and attacked Israel as oppressing Palestinians. Now some experts wonder whether the new accusations will complicate DePaul’s capital fund-raising campaign and its planned bond sales in January or its VISION Twenty12 plan, which aims to increase the university’s academic standards and prestige while making it a “model of diversity.”
Paulette Maehara, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, said sustained negative publicity could hurt the university’s ability to raise money.
“If a majority of their potential donors for large gifts are women, it could have an impact,” Ms. Maehara said. “And