Maxie Burch knew something was wrong when his campus e-mail account stopped working one recent morning. Then a maintenance man showed up to change the locks on his office door at Grand Canyon University, where the associate professor of Christian studies had taught for eight years. At 3:30 that afternoon, two security guards and a university official arrived to escort him from the campus.
It wasn’t until the next morning that Mr. Burch, who had tenure, received a letter from the university informing him that his contract would not be renewed. No explanation was given. “At no point have I been given cause, reason -- nothing,” Mr. Burch said last week.
The professor was one of 17 faculty members -- five with tenure -- who were fired this month at the for-profit Christian university in Phoenix. The terminations came despite assurances from university officials that tenure would continue to be honored, even after Grand Canyon was turned from a nonprofit to a for-profit institution last year, according to several of the professors (The Chronicle, September 3).
“I am stunned, I am angry,” said David O. Braaten, a professor of management and former dean of the business school, who found out that he had been fired when he received what he described as a “form letter” on May 14. Like Mr. Burch, Mr. Braaten said he was given no reason for his dismissal.
A spokeswoman for the university, Faith Weese, called Mr. Braaten and others “disgruntled employees,” and said that there had been a “redirection and reduction” at Grand Canyon. “We did not fire people,” she said.
Semantics aside, Mr. Braaten was a tenured professor at the beginning of the month, and now he is unemployed. He called the university’s handling of the move “remarkably un-Christian” and was upset at being called disgruntled.
“I’m a person who loved the school,” he said. “I’ve done a good job of teaching. I care about my job and about my profession. To call me a disgruntled employee is ridiculous.”
Like Mr. Burch, Patricia Beck found out that she had been let go when she tried unsuccessfully to log on to her e-mail account on May 13. “I then called the chair of the undergraduate business department and said, ‘Have I been downsized?’” she said. Yes, she was told. Ms. Beck, an assistant professor of business, did not have tenure, but she had taught full time at the university for five years.
When asked why the university had fired five tenured professors without giving them a reason, Brent Richardson, the university’s chief executive officer, said that Grand Canyon was in a “turnaround situation” and that officials were “trying to fix the university.” When asked if it was appropriate for professors to discover that they had been fired when their e-mail accounts ceased to function, Mr. Richardson said he “couldn’t get into details.”
“We’re going to take the high road,” he said.
Cynthia Russell, the university’s vice president for academic affairs, cited financial difficulties and said the employment decisions had been made “in the interest of moving forward.”
Neither she nor Mr. Richardson would speculate on what the dismissals might mean for the university’s accreditation status. Officials at the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits Grand Canyon, could not be reached for comment.
Last year the university, which had been struggling with financial problems, was purchased by a group of investors who promised to retain its Christian character. Grand Canyon, which has been in existence for more than 50 years, has approximately 1,200 traditional students and 4,000 online students. Its slogan is “The University With a Heart.”
http://chronicle.com Section: The Faculty Volume 51, Issue 38, Page A9