Subject: Re: confidential From: Rubin H Landau Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:25:53 -0800 (PST) To: Bob Uttl CC: , Rubin Landau Dear Dr. Uttl: I am saddened to hear of the unpleasant situation you have experienced in your department. I can just imagine how hard it must to be come to work everyday thinking of all that has gone on. It appears that you have already followed the OSU greviance path and are unsatisfied with the outcome. At this point I do not see what I or the AAUP can do. Usually I work with people and try to get a problem solved at as low a level as possible. I ,ight help them through the greviance procedure, if they care to go that way, although it rarely leads to justice. While it is akward at best having Professor Derryberry as AAUP president and having the AAUP boad consider the case, I cannot recommend that you pursue AAUP help because I do not see this as a violation of academic principles. The university does have a facility for arbitration, and I suggest that you consider contacting them as a useful way to develop better working relations within your department. Sincerely, Rubin ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rubin H Landau http://www.physics.orst.edu/~rubin/ Professor of Physics rubin@physics.orst.edu Dir, Computational Phys Program __o 541-737-1693 Oregon State University _ -\<,_ fax: 541-737-1683 Corvallis OR 97331 USA ...(_)/ (_) home: 541-752-4601 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Bob Uttl wrote: > Dear Dr. Landau: > > I am an assistant professor in Psychology and a member of AAUP. > > In brief, I have been subject to severe attacks, harrasment and biased > and discriminatory treatment from the senior members of the faculty in > our department and I am unable to stop it. I believe these actions are > designed to prevent me from obtaining the tenure in the department. > > The latest evaluation of faculty performance (2000-2001) in our > department were carried out in violation of both the departmental and > university rules and this flawed process resulted in a flawed product: > To illustrate, the evaluation of my performance (PROF review) claimed > that my student teaching evaluations were lower than 3.0 (a criteria the > evaluators chose to classify faculty as either satisfactory or > unsatisfactory) but in reality my teaching ratings were 3.25 for the > 2000-2001 academic year. As the result of this flawed process, I have > received "unsatisfactory" evaluation in teaching area (my research and > service activities were deemed "excellent"). The evaluation was > conducted and signed by Dr. Gillis (the chair of the department), Dr. > Horowitz (the chair of the personnel committee), and Dr. Derryberry (a > member of the personnel committe and also the president of the OSU > AAUP). > > After my repeated attempts to obtain a fair and factually correct > evaluation with the three undersigned failed, I proceeded with a formal > grievance. The provost, Dr. White, ruled that the department is to > re-evaluated my performance according to the university rules and > specifically spelled out that such evaluation is to include all courses > I taught during the evaluation period. > > Dr. Gillis, Dr. Horowitz, and Dr. Derryberry wrote back to Dr. White and > refused to conduct such evaluation, they did not understand that the > process by which they arrived to their evaluation was flawed included > factually incorrect data (although they did correct some aspects of the > evaluation). It is my understanding that Dr. White then directed Dr. > Gillis to conduct the re-evaluation. However, Dr. Gillis carried out > Dr. White's ruling only partially and failed to remove still factually > wrong evaluation from my personnel file. > > I have so far been unable to enforce the provost ruling. > > I have repeatedly asked (in the past as well as after this latest > evaluation) what are the criteria and standards for efective teaching in > our department. Dr. Gillis told me that as far as he knows there are no > criteria and no standards. He was also unable to tell me what my > "deficiencies" or "issues" in teaching might be. I am left completely > puzzled: if I do not know the criteria, the standards and what my > alleged deficiencies might be, I cannot possibly remedy those alleged > deficiencies. > > In my disscussion with Dr. Derryberry briefly after I filed the > grievance, Dr. Derryberry told me that he would not vote for my > promotion because in his view I misused the grievance process. This is > despite the fact that Dr. Derryberry has encouraged me to go for the > promotion during this year previously. > > I am presently going through the tenure and promotion process and I am > afraid I am not getting due process again. > > As a vice-president of the local chapter of AAUP, I would like to obtain > your input on this matter to help me to decide how to deal with the > situation. I would be grateful for any assitance which you can provide. > > Sincerely, > > > > Bob Uttl, Ph.D. > Assistant Professor of Psychology > Phone: 541-737-1374 > Email: bob.uttl@orst.edu > Web: www.orst.edu/~uttlb