Citing Safety Concerns, Northwestern U. Bans Tenured ‘Gadfly’ Professor From Campus

Zack Laurence, The Daily Northwestern

The ban follows an encounter the professor had this year with her associate chair, who says he is concerned she might try to kill him. But Jacqueline Stevens, the banned professor, says she has never been violent. She says the university is retaliating against her for her outspoken criticism of both the institution and her colleagues.

In July, Adrian Randolph, dean of Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, accused Ms. Stevens of “erratic and uncivil behavior,” according to a screen shot of his letter to Ms. Stevens that she provided to The Chronicle. Mr. Randolph told the professor he was concerned that “you may pose a direct threat to your own safety or the safety of others.”

But Ms. Stevens says the university’s accusations are a trumped-up way to get rid of her. Last academic year she was at the forefront of a successful effort to scuttle the university’s appointment of Karl Eikenberry, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, to lead a new global-studies institute. She says the university’s military ties financially benefit its trustees.

“I have never been diagnosed with a mental illness, nor prescribed psychotropic medications, nor even had this suggested to me,” Ms. Stevens wrote this week in a post about her case. “I also have never physically threatened much less assaulted anyone, anywhere.” In an interview with The Chronicle, she added: “It’s not like I’m an unknown quantity and you can just run around and say that I’m a crazy person.”

Stephen F. Eisenman, a professor of art history and recent past president of Northwestern’s Faculty Senate, called Ms. Stevens “brave” and not “coarse or rude.” In an email to The Chronicle, Mr. Eisenman said: “A faculty member who has consistently challenged the administration on hiring, financial, and other institutional issues is now being punished.”

The university reviewed Ms. Stevens following a run-in she had in March with Alvin Bernard Tillery Jr., associate chair of political science. After the incident, each accused the other of screaming and shouting.

Mr. Tillery says Ms. Stevens’s behavior has felt “creepy” ever since he arrived at the university three years ago. He says she has screamed and sobbed in his office, spun tales of conspiracy theories — including charging the university with tapping her phones — and denigrated his scholarship in African-American studies. All of that, says Mr. Tillery, has made him worry that Ms. Stevens is unstable.

Then there was the confrontation in his office last March. “Do I think she might shoot me?” he asks. “Absolutely. It happens all over the country.”

While personality clashes and scholarly disagreements are common in academe, an environment filled with large egos and eccentric characters, the case at Northwestern touches on a particularly wide range of compelling issues. It raises the question of whether scholars can speak out forcefully on topics that are sensitive to their universities without facing retribution. It demonstrates the heightened tensions about safety on campuses following a string of shootings at universities and schools. And by banning Ms. Stevens from the campus and requiring her to undergo what she says amounts to a psychiatric evaluation, Northwestern has upped the ante on what universities are willing to do to deal with those security concerns.

Northwestern refused to comment on the situation, saying Ms. Stevens’s case is a personnel matter. But S. Sara Monoson, chair of the political-science department, said in an email that it was Ms. Stevens’s behavior that was at issue, not her views. “Prof. Stevens’ research and political views,” wrote Ms. Monoson, “have no bearing on this matter whatsoever.”

‘I’m a Gadfly’

Northwestern hired Ms. Stevens in 2010 to teach political and legal theory, and she has been a frequent critic of the university ever since. In a 2015 article in an academic journal, she pointed out what she describes as “unsavory ties” between members of the university’s Board of Trustees — who have a self-interest in military contracts related to the university’s Qatar campus, she says.

Before that, she helped counsel an undergraduate who eventually accused Northwestern in a lawsuit of failing to adequately respond to a high-profile sexual-harassment complaint the student had brought against one of its star philosophy professors, Peter Ludlow. (Mr. Ludlow has since resigned from the university.) In the past year other tenured professors at the university have been embroiled in academic-freedom controversies — Laura Kipnis was named in Title IX complaints after writing an article for The Chronicle Review, and Alice Dreger resigned from Northwestern after charging that it had failed to protect her academic freedom.

Ms. Stevens says she is simply “a big pain” for the university: “I’m a gadfly. And from their point of view, they would just rather stomp me out.”

But Mr. Tillery says the professor is more dangerous than that; he describes her as a threat. “I am frankly terrified of her,” he says. His fear stems primarily from a meeting the two had in his office during which, he says, he asked Ms. Stevens to change her course schedule to accommodate another professor. Both Mr. Tillery and Ms. Stevens agree that she said she didn’t trust the motives of the department or Mr. Tillery in making that request. But after that, their memories of the meeting diverge radically.

Mr. Tillery says that when he asked Ms. Stevens why she didn’t trust him, “she just snapped and said, ‘Stop yelling at me! Stop yelling at me, or I’m going to leave.’”

But Ms. Stevens recalls that it was Mr. Tillery who snapped. “He started yelling at me after I said I didn’t trust him, and saying, ‘You can’t talk to me like that. You’re offending me. You can’t offend me.’ He was yelling, ‘Get out of here.’ Then he followed me to the door and slammed it.” Ms. Stevens says a student down the hallway heard the commotion and asked if she was OK.

After the incident, Ms. Stevens and Mr. Tillery filed complaints against each other. The university completed an investigation, for which Ms. Stevens says five of her colleagues submitted letters complaining that “she is a ‘No’ vote on many matters before the department,” and that she is “peculiar,” “disrespectful,” and questions the “integrity” of the chair.

In July, Mr. Randolph banned Ms. Stevens from the campus. She says she has an appointment on September 13 with a psychiatrist who will complete the fitness evaluation. Because Northwestern’s academic year is scheduled to begin soon after that, Ms. Stevens believes the university will prevent her from teaching her classes for the fall quarter — which was one of Northwestern’s goals, she speculates.

“Can you fire, or even ban, a tenured professor because of the junior-high-school antics of a few bullies asserting that they are the ones ‘feeling threatened’ and ‘unsafe’?” Ms. Stevens asks in one of her online posts. She fears the answer is yes.

Robin Wilson writes about campus culture, including sexual assault and sexual harassment. Contact her at robin.wilson@chronicle.com.