The march began at the Humanities and Social Sciences building and continued to the Alumni Memorial Building.
Students of all colors gathered at Humanities Plaza Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate support of George White, Jr., assistant professor of history, who was denied tenure under controversial terms.
The Black Faculty and Staff Association, Students for a Progressive Society, Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee, the UT chapter of the NAACP, United Campus Workers, and the Progressive Student Alliance made up a large portion of the crowd. The group had a permit to demonstrate for an hour and police were on hand to assist and keep an eye on the proceedings.
The large group chanted "we want tenure" and held banners as they marched down to the Alumni Memorial Building to the office of Dean of Arts and Sciences Bruce Bursten. The purpose of the march was to deliver a letter to the dean who last year recommended to Chancellor Loren Crabtree to deny White's application for tenure and promotion, despite the votes by two committees to approve the application.
"It doesn't make sense," Adam Holland told the crowd on the conflicting decision to deny White a promotion and further tenure at the University of Tennessee.
Holland was a student of White's and said the professor helped him pursue a legal career in helping others as an attorney. He told the crowd change would come with more demonstrations from students.
"One of the ways to bring it (administration) down is to challenge them as students," he said.
His scholarship (the book he wrote) balances white-privileging history that so many historians in our country have written. We want a real history, and White can help us obtain that. Lauren Fitzgerald
The group's letter to Bursten stated that if the decision in denying White tenure was not overturned by March 19th the group's actions would become more vocal by March 21st in hopes of reaching national attention.
Bursten would not respond to the group's demands because of White's ongoing appeal of the decision. The demonstrators stood outside the Alumni Building for 40 minutes, interrupting a class inside, as they chanted and made speeches against the administration.
"This administration is afraid of change," said Sarah Peacock, a student leader for the Progressive Student Alliance. "They don't want you to know what Dr. White knows."
The problem of granting White tenure may have come from uneasiness about his theoretical approach to race in his book "Holding the Line: Race, Racism, and American Foreign Policy Toward Africa, 1953-1961," in which he talked about Eisenhower and his "white supremacy" policies during the Cold War.
Lauren Fitzgerald, who helped organize the event, told of how White worked hard to show his students all sides of history and that with his removal students would be missing out on a valuable resource.
"His scholarship (the book he wrote) balances white-privileging history that so many historians in our country have written. We want a real history, and White can help us obtain that," she said.
The group also stated in their letter they would like an open forum with the men behind the decision: former History Department Head Todd Diacon and Jeff Norrell, a history professor holding the Bernadotte Schmitt Chair of Excellence, along with Crabtree and Bursten. They said they have questions that need answering and are demanding to see White's tenure case file along with any letters written about White.
"They (administration) don't want him here because he will pregnate your young minds," Denny Littlejohn, an executive committee member of UT's Black Faculty and Staff Association, told the crowd. "Lets fight for what's right - the power is in students hands."
(Editor's note: Sarah Peacock was identified incorrectly in an earlier version of this story. TNJN.com regrets the error.)
Comments
Samantha commented, on March 8, 2007 at 11:18 a.m.:
Great job, Staff, for all your hard work covering Dr. White!!!
06 Graduate commented, on March 9, 2007 at 2:54 a.m.:
I wish this same group of students had taken notice and action last spring when a former UT professor, Martin Carcieri, was denied tenure under similarly dubious circumstances. I graduated during the same two week period that he was denied tenure and left for a job in another part of the country before being able to raise any awareness to my fellow students. That was another terrible, yet largely unnoticed, blow to the students of UT and another incrimination of what appears to be a failing tenure system. I had never met a more passionate or challenging professor at UT than Carcieri and it was a sad day when UT failed to recognize the qualities of a fantastic teacher in him. Only after keeping up with news at UT and seeing what is happening to Dr. White have I come to believe that what happened to Carcieri was not a fluke. I hope the students featured in this article will investigate Carcieri's situation and, hopefully, apply some of that insight to the controversy surrounding Dr. White. There may be a systemic problem at UT that is not being addressed.
Sarah Peacock commented, on March 9, 2007 at 6:04 p.m.:
Actually, I'm a member of the Progressive Student Alliance, as well as several other student organizations, but not Students for a Progressive Society.
Rationalist commented, on April 2, 2007 at 2:29 p.m.:
If UT-Knoxville does not think that Martin Carcieri is the kind of professor they want on their faculty, then UT is not the kind of school I want my kids to attend when they grow up.
Michael Rodgers commented, on August 15, 2007 at 9:55 p.m.:
Dr. Carcieri was easily the best professor I had during my time at UT. As another poster stated, he is a very passionate and challenging teacher. Moreover, he was always able to get students to see both sides of every issue, an invaluable skill in legal practice and life generally. Four out of five external reviewers voted in favor of Carcieri for his tenure bid, while Feldman basically ousted him. I'm still not sure the reason for this because Dr. Carcieri has a fantastic track record with the students and an impressive resume. UT lost a great professor that day.