Professor Andrea Smith

I know of Professor Andrea Smith's work on indigenous rights, Native American studies, and being the co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. I didn't know she was a faculty member in a joint appointment between American Cultures and Women's Studies at University Michigan. And I didn't know she was denied tenure. But get this! It was the Women's Studies Department that voted against her!

It'll be very very difficult to find out the exact reasons for her denial but it is proceeding up the university rank and file. Going up for tenure can be a heart-wrenching process where your research, teaching, and service are evaluated within the university and with experts in the field. It's a process that is mired with twists and turns and what may look like a positive file full of glowing reviews can unexpectedly turn into a denial. Sometimes you get a reason; sometimes you don't. And right now, there's no reason for the denial. I also know from several colleagues that even though tenure review is a heavily regulated process, it can also get quite personal and vindictive. Think about it: a junior faculty depends upon positive votes from the department. If you say something that irritates a senior faculty member -- and the reasons for can be extensive that includes clothing style (too brazen, too dowdy), personality (too aggressive, too aloof), shoes (yes it's a true story), and to every mundane element of one's personhood that has nothing to do with their professional standards.

It's too simple to say that you'll always encounter a jerk in your workplace. But these jerks made it through and they're in a position of power to decide your professional fate. Of course, the departmental vote is just one stop in a pretty extensive process from the university wide vote to the provost to the president. They are all represented in this process. Ideally, they can operate as the internal "check and balance" to correct gross mistakes like the one I just mentioned. But the problem is that they become vulnerable if they do override decisions from below. It would be seen as undermining the authority of the faculty and the university committee reviewing the case. So in the end, rarely, but not never, do the provost or the president use this authority.

It's really disappointing because I know (personally for one thing) many faculty who were denied tenure. Some legitimate such as a lack of publications. And others for some seriously ridiculous reasons, if they ever become public. For Professor Andrea Smith, her scholarship and service is simply outstanding. And to have the departmental vote split between two historically close departments is puzzling. Being denied tenure is like being punched in the gut. It's basically saying, "After six years of quality research, excellent teaching record, and service to the community and to the world, it all doesn't mean a damn thing to this university. So long and goodbye."

No one needs to feel like that. Certainly not Professor Smith's already distinguished career.


From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

Protests Heat Up at Michigan Over Tenure Case of Expert in Native American Studies

Students and faculty members at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor have started an e-mail campaign to protest negative decisions in the tenure bid of Andrea L. Smith, who is interim director of the campus’s program in Native American studies.

Ms. Smith is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in Michigan’s American-culture program and women’s-studies department. The two programs split on her tenure bid, with American culture voting yes and women’s studies voting no. Then, last week, a panel in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts sided with women’s studies and voted to reject Ms. Smith’s bid. The decision now goes to the provost, Teresa A. Sullivan.

The e-mail in support of Ms. Smith asks people to send letters to the provost protesting the negative decisions. The message says Ms. Smith is “one of the greatest indigenous feminist intellectuals of our time.” The message does not name the students and professors who are supporting Ms. Smith, nor does it detail why her tenure bid was turned down. The message is circulating on several academic e-mail lists, including one for women’s studies, and has been echoed in the blogosphere at places like ThinkGirl.net and La Chola.

Valerie Traub, who leads women’s studies at Michigan, declined to talk about Ms. Smith’s bid or the department’s decision. “It’s a process internal to the University of Michigan,” she said.

Ms. Smith could not be reached for comment. She is the author of Conquest: Sexual Violence and the American Indian Genocide (South End Press, 2005) and Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances, which is being released next month by Duke University Press. She is also a co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, which calls itself a “national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color.” —Robin Wilson