U of I Academic Leader Says Review of Adjunct Professor Could Serve Entire Campus Well

A leading University of Illinois faculty member said it is good to see the Urbana campus initiating a process by which the contracts of faculty will be looked at before being renewed.

The review process concerns adjunct faculty member Kenneth Howell, who was told at the end of the academic year he would no longer teach courses on Catholicism. A student complained about an e-mail Howell sent to all his students regarding homosexual acts. Howell was later re-instated to the position after the Alliance Defense Fund threatened to sue the university.

The U of I's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure completed the review of Howell, which was released Monday by the online journal, 'Inside Higher Ed'. Urbana Faculty Senate Executive Committee Chair Joyce Tolliver said this report is important for all academics. "That is, I think the primary and most important recommendation of this report," Tolliver said. "That we get something in writing that would be a campus-level procedure to avoid this sort of ad-hoc decision making that we've had to make from department to department in the absence of any procedure to follow."

Tolliver has already met with Interim Chancellor Robert Easter to talk about setting up such a process for reviewing academic contracts. She would not give specifics of the panel's review of Howell. The Alliance Defense Fund threatened to sue the U of I when Howell was dismissed. An ADF attorney, Jordan Lorence, said the U of I Committee's report was correct in that all faculty, including adjunct professors, should be afforded academic freedoms to express opinions and given their due process rights.

"This faculty committee says 'look, we have to have some procedures in place to make sure that no one is just dismissed," Lorence said. "Not because they're a bad teacher, but because some people don't agree with what he's asserting in the classroom, and that would be a step forward for everybody."

It is not known how 'Inside Higher Ed' obtained the report. U of I Law Professor Matthew Finkin, who chairs the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, declined to comment, saying these are 'personal issues.' U of I spokeswoman Robin Kaler issued a statement, stating 'the university appreciates the work of the committee, and agrees "with their assessment that teaching about religion versus advocating a religious belief or doctrine is a complex issue.