Harry Edwards vs. Berkeley
BERNICK, MICHAEL
National Reports HARRY EDWARDS VS. BERKELEY BY MICHAEL BERNICK ciology of sport drawing over 800 students. But in January the tenured faculty of the department voted 10-8, with one abstention, to...
...In this relatively more objective area Edwards would seem to rate high...
...His classes have been among Robert Blauner and David Matza the best attended on campus, his to liberal to moderate Democrats winter-quarter course on the so- such as Philip Selznick, Neil Smelser and Robert Bellah...
...Edwards' other writing, on the black family and black participation in higher education, is equally foreign terrain to most of his fellow professors...
...That underscores another frequent problem of appointment decisions, particularly in sociology, one of the more diverse branches of the social sciences: unfamiliarity with the applicant's specialty...
...Edwards is not alone in suffering from the lack of objective standards for judging the value of an area of investigation...
...The political ogy of Sport, and published widely spectrum in the sociology depart-in both popular and scholarly jour- ment runs mainly from radicals like nals...
...The professors who opposed Edwards have not spoken publicly on the matter, in conformity with department policy...
...In public statements designed to build up the kind of student and community pressure that would persuade Chancellor Albert Bowker to overturn the decision, Edwards presents his tenure denial as the product of racial animosity and political repression...
...Indeed, they stated that because Edwards is black, he received every benefit of the doubt in the decision...
...Perhaps the lesson to be learned from the Harry Edwards case is that the tenure process should be more open...
...He is a more public person, contributing to Esquire and Sports Illustrated, and appearing on radio and TV...
...The evaluation of scholarly capabilities, of course, is supposed to be coupled with considerations of teaching proficiency in tenure decisions...
...What can be ascertained, because it is among their comments, is that he succeeds in getting students to think "sociologically" —to recognize and criticize the processes of socialization...
...But while Edwards had an advantage in one respect, his subject and manner were out of the ordinary...
...Racism is not an issue here, though...
...Requiring professors to publicly articulate their criticisms might prove uncomfortable for all concerned, but it could serve to separate personal questions from academic substance...
...Along with importance of subject matter and depth of treatment, eloquence of expression, specifically on paper, is mentioned as a sign of outstanding scholarship...
...Certainly they could have no effect on those who feel the sociology of sport is an unfit subject for a university curriculum—too "lightweight...
...His courses on race relations, the family and sport are among the most popular in the University, and the overwhelming number of student evaluations rate them both valuable and enjoyable...
...They also say that his popularity lies with the below-average students...
...He further pated in the black student strike at maintains that his rejection is de-Cornell, has for the last six years signed to have a "chilling effect" on been a member of the department dissent and to purge the campus of of sociology at the University of those who challenge the system...
...At Berkeley, for example, rated with Harvard as one of the two top departments in the country, there are probably just a handful of older sociologists—Kinsley Davis, Herbert Blumer, Smelser, and Bellah?whose work would find approval in the eyes of their peers...
...Moreover, the language that seems to strike the most responsive chord is that of the white middle-class?which is not where Edwards hails from...
...On the contrary, the professors interviewed who cast negative ballots were quick to note that minorities were underrepresented in the department...
...An assessment issued by five other members of the department takes the opposite view...
...All said they felt Edwards' work did not meet Berkeley's standards of scholarship...
...In fact, Edwards does have a theatrical manner: At 6'8" and weighing 265 pounds, his stage presence is understandably commanding, and his lectures are delivered with dramatic confidence...
...little agreement appears to exist among sociologists anywhere on precisely what is of sufficient significance to quality for serious academic attention...
...his approach did not fit his coworkers' image of a scholar-teacher...
...But in January the tenured faculty of the department voted 10-8, with one abstention, to refuse Edwards a permanent position and to terminate his contract after the 1977-78 academic year...
...Still, the action rendered the replies virtually worthless...
...As anyone who has attempted to penetrate the unintelligible prose of a reputedly brilliant academic is aware, this is an especially subjective standard...
...He calls his colleagues"Shockleys and Jensens," contendHarry Edwards, who ing that the racists of the '50s went came to national atten- into the closet during the '60s but tion in 1968 when he now came out "emboldened by the tried to organize a boycott at the Bakke decision" (see "The Race Olympic Games by black athletes, Dilemma at Berkeley Law," NL, and again in 1970 when he partici- November 22, 1976...
...For Edwards it has loomed large, since he concentrates on the sociology of sport, a newly-emerging area he has done much to develop, and only one or two Berkeley sociologists have researched the field or are at home with the literature...
...Although he is one of the highest acclaimed men in the discipline, his critics there charged that he had done nothing of real substance since his thesis...
...But five of them were willing to discuss their judgments off the record...
...And his style is different...
...Although the University in the early '70s adopted a policy of affirmative action, just 14 of the 1,182 tenured faculty—one of whom is in the sociology department—are black...
...A tenured professor voiced the discomfort probably felt by others when he said that in talking to Edwards one could never forget that he was black...
...Department Chairman John Clausen has said this was done out of fear that Edwards' faculty supporters might make copies of the documents and distribute them to the press...
...For instance, a professor I talked to observed it might have been for the best that Edwards didn't receive tenure because he was "all thumbs here," his style didn't fit in...
...Yet even Bellah was rejected in 1973 by a majority of the faculty Michael Bernick, a past contributor, is studying law at the University of California at Berkeley...
...No one can be entirely sure if Edwards' dismissal was or was not fair, because the entire tenure procedure was shrouded in secrecy...
...at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton...
...If scholarship and teaching, the chief elements in tenure decisions, are impossible to measure by some neutral, foolproof method, all the more so are such totally personal (and again cultural) factors as a voting professor's notions of how a colleague should conduct himself, and whether he works well with others...
...Professors William Kornhauser, Troy Duster, Arlie Hochschild, Blauner, and Matza describe Revolt of the Black Athlete as a "clear and eloquent statement about the social and political context of the time," and Sociology of Sport as "both a coherent synthesis of a new field and a composite of several analytic essays of great merit...
...Nevertheless, the Harry Edwards case does once more raise questions about the subtle ways the tenure review process can operate to exclude candidates whose academic and personal style—if not their politics—differs from the rest of the faculty...
...Supporters argue that considering the pervasive role it plays in the lives of so many, its study is long overdue...
...During this These claims—made in the ab-time he has written a book, Sociol- straot—are unjustified...
...He is also very consciously, and proudly, black...
...Mathematician Andre Weil pronounced Bellah's work "worthless...
...As to the academic ranking of the students who give him high marks, that cannot be gleaned from the evaluations...
...No list of particulars was elucidated, nor was any mention made of teaching...
...The sole official explanation for the decision was given by Clausen: "It's a matter of scholarship...
...Given that each of them has a history of support for the civil rights movement dating to the '50s, there is no reason to question their sincerity...
...They termed his early books, Revolt of the Black Athlete and Black Students, journalism rather than.sociology...
...Unfortunately, when they arrived the respondent's name was removed from each letter...
...California, Berkeley...
...Critics, incidentally, offer no more specific reason for their contention that sport is less worthy of examination than the family, small groups or religion...
...A number of students write that his course led them to question for the first time the relation of values and ideas of institutions...
...his Sociology of Sport was characterized as insignificant and superficial...
...But many faculty members dismiss these evaluations, declaring that Edwards is a performer...
...To remedy this situation, the department solicited letters of evaluation from persons throughout the country who had experience in Edwards' specialty...
Vol. 60 • May 1977 • No. 10
