May 30, 2009
In News
Dear Supporters,
Margo has now officially lost her job as a professor at Ithaca College.
Despite our calls for justice, Ithaca College continues to deny the glaring inconsistencies in Margo’s tenure review. The College’s vice president, Nancy Pringle, “fully denies that Margo was ever subjected to negative comments, harassment, retaliation or interference with her tenure review”. In fact Nancy Pringle actually claims the quote made by a tenured faculty in the Sociology department in which he writes “We had little or no expectations of her; she is after all a woman of color.” was“…not discriminatory and had nothing to do with Margo’s tenure review…”!
As Ithaca College chooses to ignore and even defend blatant racism, sexism and political bias in its tenure review process, with your help Margo continues to fight on. She has just completed and submitted her final response to the New York State Division of Human Rights. We are sending them the petition with over 300 signatures and we will continue to send additional names, as the list grows. Thank you for signing and please tell others to sign on.
By learning about Margo’s story, sending letters to Ithaca College and telling others about her story, you have helped amplify Margo’s call for justice. Though this call for justice is specific to Margo’s story today, it is actually a broader struggle which is not a unique struggle for international faculty, women, and those on the left.
Since working on Margo’s campaign, we have learned of and joined efforts with other outspoken professors in similar struggles which include Norman Finkelstein, Joel Kovel, Loretta Capeheart, and Nagesh Rao. In fact, Margo is working closely with all four professors and will be giving a panel talk this June 19 with Loretta and Nagesh at Socialism 2009 Conference in Chicago.
We invite you to come hear them speak about their cases and address the future of academic freedom in America.
Register today at: www.Socialismconference.org
At this point speaking out is our best weapon.
By refusing to be silenced in the face of such institutionalized bias Margo, Loretta, Nagesh, Joel and Norman are blazing a trail for others to step forward and speak out about their stifling experiences in academia. Our vision is to expose these closed minded practices in places where open thinking should be protected and encouraged.
Please keep telling others about Margo’s story.
Please send us your suggestions.
Please come meet and join us at Socialism 2009 in Chicago.
In Solidarity and Appreciation,
The Equal Employment Opportunity Campaign
P.S. Check out this week’s article on Margo written by an Ithaca College student.
P.S.S. To learn more about these other professors’ struggles visit: