Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    A Culture of Cybersecurity
    Opportunities in the Hard Sciences
    Career Preparation
Sign In
Weekly Briefing icon_b.jpg

Weekly Briefing

Press pause and catch up on the week’s biggest stories. Delivered on Saturdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, sign up to receive it in your email inbox.

September 16, 2023
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email

From: Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez

Subject: Weekly Briefing: What happens when your professor disappears?

A professor is suddenly gone. Now what?

In July 2022, emails to their longtime adviser bounced. Then came an email from Tracy Johnson, dean of life sciences, who wrote that that Priyanga Amarasekare, a tenured professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Los Angeles, was suddenly “on leave” through the end of the coming academic year.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

A professor is suddenly gone. Now what?

In July 2022, emails to their longtime adviser bounced. Then came an email from Tracy Johnson, dean of life sciences, who wrote that that Priyanga Amarasekare, a tenured professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Los Angeles, was suddenly “on leave” through the end of the coming academic year.

For Tanner Dulay, Rosa McGuire, and Madeline Cowen, three graduate students whom Amarasekare had been advising and mentoring, and who had written papers with her, the email started a chain of confusion and frustration.

At first, the students hoped that their adviser was OK. Dulay, a fifth-year doctoral student, said the Ph.D. students couldn’t understand why their adviser would disappear, not say anything, and leave them in the dark.

In August 2022, Johnson wrote to the students, in one of many emails shared with The Chronicle, that their professor would no longer be able to advise them.

The students pieced together some reasoning for Amarasekare’s absence through news accounts and word of mouth. In 2022, after a dispute with her colleagues, Amarasekare was suspended for a year without pay or benefits. Her salary was docked by 20 percent for two years after that. She was banned from communicating with students; going to her lab, or anywhere else on campus; and getting access to her National Science Foundation-funded research.

The Chronicle sought comments on the punishment from Johnson and from Michael Alfaro, chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, but got no response.

The university issued this statement: “The success and well-being of our graduate students is of the utmost importance to us. Generally, when graduate students encounter challenges as they work toward their degrees, including when their faculty adviser is unavailable, we prioritize the student’s academic needs and make every effort to support the continuation and completion of their research and their degree.”

Amarasekare has criticized what she sees as discrimination against minority faculty members. In 2020 she set up an email list for faculty members in her department, accusing it of denying her the same promotion and leadership opportunities that white men had received. Her supporters say she’s being punished for the blunt way that she’s criticized colleagues and department policies.

Last year a faculty committee found her responsible for violating the university’s Faculty Code of Conduct. The Academic Senate’s committee on privilege and tenure recommended written censure and a potential pay cut if the alleged violations continued.

When she was suspended, in 2022, Amarasekare had the three Ph.D. students and about a dozen undergraduate research assistants. She also served on the dissertation committees for two of those doctoral students. For the graduate students who have worked closely with Amarasekare for years, finding a new adviser has been difficult.

While the university told the students to work with Alfaro, the department chair, they were skeptical. Their doctoral research was specialized work, they argued, and no one else had the expertise to supervise them. Dulay said that they had been “forced assigned” to other faculty members, but mostly they were left to do their research on their own.

Additionally, in September 2022, undergraduate research assistants discovered that the locks had been changed in the lab housing Amarasekare’s NSF-funded research. Later, the undergraduates were allowed in the lab but had to be supervised by one of Amarasekare’s graduate students. So Dulay, McGuire, and Cowen had to expand their own mentoring work.

McGuire said that the time she had spent advocating for Amarasekare’s return, and the lost access to her research lab, had delayed her graduation plans.

On July 1, 2023, the day Amarasekare’s suspension ended, Dulay emailed his former adviser, but the messages still bounced. Dulay and the other grad students emailed Johnson to express their frustration about the lack of transparency and explain why it was important to meet with their professor. Johnson later replied that Amarasekare could advise students about dissertations, conferences, and in a few other ways, but all contact would have to be remote. And students couldn’t talk about “personnel matters as they relate to Dr. Amarasekare,” read the email.

Read about the consequences of a professor’s disappearance on her graduate students, in our Katie Mangan’s story.

Lagniappe

  • Learn. Where you live — not your genetics or lifestyle — may have the greatest effect on your lifespan. Here’s a map and story on American life expectancy. (Politico)
  • Read. This year’s Burning Man festival, in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, was plagued with rain, turning the desert into mud. This man is in charge of cleaning up after the festival, which has a “leave no trace” policy. (GQ)
  • Watch. You can watch Top Boy, set in a British housing project, for the drug wars, the family pathos, or its slight resemblance to one of the best American TV shows ever, The Wire. Or you can watch it for the language of London’s streets, where “wagwan?” is slang for “what’s going on?” and “say less” means OK, an abbreviated “say no more.” When a dealer is murdered, he’s “dun.” (Netflix)

—Fernanda, with TV recommendation from Heidi Landecker

Chronicle Top Reads

illustration of a robot hand poking a needle into an inflated balloon letter A
The Review | Essay
AI Means Professors Need to Raise Their Grading Standards
By Michael W. Clune September 12, 2023
ChatGPT has transformed grade inflation from a minor corruption to an enterprise-destroying blight.
Hiroki Yokota, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at IUPUI in Indianapolis on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. Yokota did not receive trad tenure with Purdue as a result of Indiana University and Purdue splitting after a 50-year relationship.
'Shoved Aside'
A 50-Year-Old Partnership Is Dissolving, Posing a Novel Risk to Tenure
By Lee Gardner September 12, 2023
As Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis breaks into two institutions, some professors face an uncertain future.
illustration of students sitting at desks working on tablets. Some are black, others are orange
The Changing Classroom
What Will Determine AI’s Impact on College Teaching? 5 Signs to Watch.
By Beth McMurtrie September 8, 2023
Academics have been consumed by the technology’s potential to disrupt education, but recent analyses present a more complicated picture.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Harvard University
'Deeply Unsettling'
Harvard’s Battle With Trump Escalates as Research Money Is Suddenly Canceled
Photo-based illustration of a hand and a magnifying glass focusing on a scene from Western Carolina Universiy
Equal Opportunity
The Trump Administration Widens Its Scrutiny of Colleges, With Help From the Internet
Santa J. Ono, president of the University of Michigan, watches a basketball game on the campus in November 2022.
'He Is a Chameleon'
At U. of Michigan, Frustrations Grew Over a President Who Couldn’t Be Pinned Down
Photo-based illustration of University of Michigan's president Jeremy Santa Ono emerging from a red shape of Florida
Leadership
A Major College-President Transition Is Defined by an About-Face on DEI

From The Review

Illustration showing a valedictorian speaker who's tassel is a vintage microphone
The Review | Opinion
A Graduation Speaker Gets Canceled
By Corey Robin
Illustration showing a stack of coins and a university building falling over
The Review | Opinion
Here’s What Congress’s Endowment-Tax Plan Might Cost Your College
By Phillip Levine
Photo-based illustration of a college building under an upside down baby crib
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Must Stop Infantilizing Everyone
By Gregory Conti

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin