More than a month after hearing Ohio University journalism professor Bill Reader's appeal for tenure, the committee charged with reviewing the case issued its second attempt at a recommendation last week.
The Faculty Senate ad hoc committee sent a second recommendation in favor of granting Reader tenure to OU President Roderick McDavis last Friday, correcting an initial report that contained factual errors.
Reader, a well-liked professor at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism since 2002, was the first journalism professor to be denied tenure in 14 years last April.
The revised recommendation excludes three inaccuracies included in the original report, which was filed Feb. 14. Committee Chairman Gregory Van Patten said the group still recommends in favor of Reader despite having to correct the report.
Van Patten said faculty and administrators uninvolved in the case brought to his attention problems with inconsistencies within the original report.
We must underscore that the removal of these inferences from our report in no way detracts from our findings
Van Patten wrote in the introduction to the revised report.
The committee was appointed to review Reader's case after he was denied tenure by Greg Shepherd, dean of the Scripps College of Communication.
The journalism school's promotion and tenure committee voted 7-5 to recommend Reader for tenure. About two weeks later, three tenured Scripps faculty members filed harassment complaints against Reader, which led Director Tom Hodson to recommend against granting Reader tenure.
The original recommendation said the three tenured faculty members who filed harassment complaints against Reader also had voted against his tenure. But because the School of Journalism conducts promotion and tenure votes through secret ballot, it is not clear who voted against him.
The initial recommendation focused heavily on the presence of an officer from the Ohio University Police Department at the Scripps College of Communication promotion and tenure meeting. The recommendation stated that a committee member - also one of the faculty members who filed a harassment complaint - requested the officer, but it is unclear from whom the request came.
McDavis has 30 days after receiving the revised report to make a final decision and has begun reviewing the case, said Becky Watts, McDavis' chief of staff. McDavis' decision will be announced March 29.
Van Patten said he does not plan to meet with McDavis to discuss the recommendation.
I'm hoping to step back and let the president make his decision Van Patten said.
Click here to read the revised recommendation
1
News
Wesley Lowery
30872a.jpg
