Florida Atlantic University is putting to the test the adage that “no publicity is bad publicity.”
In recent weeks the public institution has been plagued by a series of controversies that has attracted national attention and criticism from people both on and off the campus. And now some Florida Atlantic faculty members worry that the incidents have dealt a serious blow to the institution’s reputation and to academic freedom.
Since the start of the spring semester, Florida Atlantic has had to deal with fallout from several widely publicized events. Among them: A faculty member publicly questioned whether the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., really happened; administrators struck an agreement to name the university’s football stadium for a private prison operator that has been accused of human-rights violations; and, most recently, an instructor asked students to step on a piece of paper with “Jesus” written on it as part of a classroom exercise.
Steps were taken after the public outcry over each of those incidents in an attempt to lessen some of the public-relations damage. The university apologized for the “Jesus"-stomping incident and placed the communications instructor who presided over the exercise on leave—largely for his own protection, officials said. The prison company withdrew the $6-million donation it had pledged in exchange for the naming rights to the stadium, which will no longer be named for the company, GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla. And the university released a statement distancing itself from the views of the professor who was skeptical about the Newtown shootings (but who remains a tenured faculty member in the communications department).
But even as the dust settles, some faculty members fear that long-term harm has been done to the public’s perception of the university, and even more, to professors’ autonomy in the classroom.
‘Puzzling’ Responses
Timothy O. Lenz, a professor of political science, said the university’s “puzzling” responses to the incidents make it seem as if Florida Atlantic doesn’t have its act together.
Mr. Lenz, a former president of the Faculty Senate, said the administration’s response to the controversy surrounding the “Jesus” exercise is a prime example of how to take a bad situation and make it worse.
By putting the professor on leave and apologizing for the incident, he said, the university has made some faculty members concerned about whether they can freely teach and train students on controversial subjects.
It’s “up to the academics who are teaching in the field to determine the content of the course, reading, and workload,” Mr. Lenz said. Only in extreme cases, he said, should administrators be allowed to regulate what a professor does in a lesson plan. And the recent exercise was not such a case, he added.
The exercise took place in an intercultural-communications course taught by Deandre Poole, an instructor who was hired on a one-year contract. According to the textbook that featured the lesson that asked students to step on a piece of paper bearing the word “Jesus,” the exercise is designed to ignite discussion about how cultural symbols, though arbitrary, take on strong and emotional meanings. The student activity explicitly states that “most will hesitate” and advises the teacher to ask those students “why they can’t step on the paper.”
But an offended student complained, and the story went viral. Christian groups spoke out against the instructor, and even Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, weighed in. He demanded that the university begin an investigation and ensure such an incident doesn’t happen again.
“The professor’s lesson was offensive, and even intolerant, to Christians and those of all faiths who deserve to be respected as Americans entitled to religious freedom,” Mr. Scott wrote in a letter to the university’s administration.
The university repeatedly apologized to those who took offense and offered assurances that the “insensitive and unacceptable” exercise would not be used again in the future. In placing Mr. Poole on paid administrative leave, the university cited “safety reasons.” It is unclear when the instructor will be able to return to the campus.
In a letter to The Chronicle about the incident, Susan Reilly, a professor of communication, wrote that Mr. Poole, a Christian himself, had received an “overpowering” amount of hate mail, including racial slurs and death threats. She took issue with the university’s response.
“Faculty members at Florida Atlantic were shocked when the vice president for student affairs posted a video on the university Web site apologizing for the professor’s behavior and promising the exercise would be removed from the curriculum,” Ms. Reilly wrote. “Education cannot advance without questioning the status quo. This case has a chilling effect on academic freedom in this country.”
‘A Bad Precedent’
Chris Robé, an associate professor of communication and the president of the faculty union, said some faculty members have started to talk about tailoring their lessons to be safe, but he does not plan to alter his syllabus.
“I teach Birth of a Nation, a totally racist film, to address early-20th-century history,” Mr. Robé said. “I’m not going to not teach it because someone in the class may find it offensive, including myself. That’s weak criteria.”
Any subject has the potential to be controversial, he said, and this is “a bad precedent if the university is going to cave to one student and external pressure.”
“We’re not being defended, and it enables any wayward student who has an objection to really press it,” Mr. Robé said. “We didn’t think the administration could botch this as bad as they did.”
Lisa Metcalf, the university’s director of media relations, said future administrative decisions related to regulating course content and personnel actions would also be made on a case-by-case basis. She cited a letter written by Mary Jane Saunders, the university’s president, to the chancellor of the Florida State University system and the chair of the Board of Governors.
“We are challenged to balance our responsibility to protect student records and academic freedom with common sense, personal judgment, and community expectations,” Ms. Saunders wrote. “This episode has tested our responsibilities. While a public university is a place for open dialogue and debate, we accept that we have a tremendous responsibility to consider the repercussions of our decisions.”
Ms. Metcalf said the university did not anticipate that the incidents would have any lasting effects.
“While we can’t predict how these isolated incidents will affect the future, we are confident that potential faculty and students will see all the great things about Florida Atlantic University and not be influenced by these unique circumstances,” she wrote in an e-mail.
The faculty union, along with the Faculty Senate and others, plans to call on administrators to release a more-robust defense of academic freedom for faculty members, Mr. Robé said. If administrators refuse to issue such a pledge, the university may begin to find it hard to attract faculty members and students despite its hopeful attitude.
“Florida is already a bad state for education,” Mr. Robé said. “We’re really lowly paid, state funding has been cut back tremendously, and if we don’t have academic freedom, who’s going to come?”
