The Harry Edwards Case: An Exchange

...I believe his academic future should not be determined by middle class white men who write primarily for fellow academics, but by those toward whom he has directed his work...

...Like Edwards, Eakin was one of the most popular professors on campus, and his methods were widely hailed as exciting...

...He brings to his students a perspective they might otherwise never encouter...

...To whom is a university professor supposed to speak...

...Some claimed, for Michael S. Kimmel is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley...

...Finally, Edwards' dedication and service to the community at large has been widely and appreciatively noted...

...After all, as Bernick correctly points out, tenure is supposed to be awarded on the basis of three criteria: quality of teaching, quality of publications, and university and public service...

...Indeed, the controversial tenure decision is not really—to borrow the title of Bernick's article—a matter of "Harry Edwards vs...

...Like other public universities, Berkeley must try to recruit teachers with highly specialized fields of research and simultaneously educate masses of students: Ironically, Edwards is one of those who has been able to transcend the apparent contradiction...

...By the strength of his physical presence, and through the substantive questions he raises, he presses his pupils to take an active role in the learning process, to grasp for understanding rather than simply accept a given interpretation...

...He was tenured...

...He is the most popular professor in the sociology department, and one of the best liked at the university...

...He states that the sociologist speaks not only to academics but to a far wider audience, then cites the 1970 black student strike at Cornell and the black boycott of the 1968 Olympics as examples of Edwards' efforts having a practical effect...

...Thus to assert, as Bernick does, that "Racism is not an issue here" is to miss the point...

...When introduced by others, this kind of classroom innovation is frequently applauded—even in the most depersonalized universities, such as Berkeley...

...If racism is to be combatted, it is important that its various manifestations be clearly recognized...

...example, that "his popularity lies with the below average student...

...This seems to frighten colleagues who prefer that the academy, with its comfortable security, be the sole arena for the exchange of ideas...

...Edwards teaches in this way for a reason...

...Bernick reports that what had initially looked like a remarkably high evaluation of Edwards by his students has been dismissed by other faculty members...

...Edwards more than passes each test...

...Apparently the challenge presented by Edwards has hit too close to home, causing many professors to retreat behind elite white standards as the most effective and least overtly racist strategy for combating him...

...Similarly, he should not have to conform to the same standards that apply to white male sociologists in traditional and established fields: a new set of criteria is necessary that recognizes the larger scope of his efforts...

...Edwards stands against this conception of higher education...

...He dismisses this overtly racist statement by noting that many of he faculty members who voted against Edwards have "a history of suport for the civil rights movement dating to the '50s...

...He seeks a far wider audience that includes undergraduate students, athletes and the black community...

...He brings to his students a perspective they might otherwise never encounter...

...Michael Bernick has completed his first year at Berkeley Law School...

...It is not, as Bernick quotes one professor, simply "a question of scholarship"—it is a question of academic freedom...

...But it seems obvious that such a deduction does not follow from the evidence—any more than the dismissal of a Jewish professor of Jewish studies would necessarily indicate the presence of anti-Semitism...

...For Edwards and for Berkeley, racism is an issue of overriding significance...

...In addition to making important contributions to the study of minorities and of the family, he has virtually invented an entire new subfield—the sociology of sport...

...To reach these groups, he has written in popular magazines and developed a public persona...

...The second issue Kimmel raises concerns Edwards' constituency...

...In such an arrangement, sociology departments would be filled not by Max Webers or Robert Mortons, but the editors od and contributors to Time and Playboy...

...More fundamentally, a system that gave the power of evaluation to a professor's "constituency," to his readership outside academe, would encourage the scholar to simplify and tell his audience exactly what it wanted to hear...

...He is also white...

...It seems that academic freedom has come to mean the protection of the institution against the individual...

...The need for new and different procedures in making tenure decisions is reinforced by the fact that Edwards is not alone...

...Harry Edwards has consistently avoided the scholarly "paper chase" and declined to address himself only to the small number of Americans who call themselves sociologists...

...Should Edwards be penalized for this...

...they are systematically being denied tenure...

...In attempting to link these two subjects, Bernick has unfortunately overlooked some of the more significant aspects of the Edwards situation...

...Being members of a generation reared on television, many of today's students come to college as passive consumers of education: The campus is a gigantic gas station, where you drive in for a one-time-only fill-up and then drive away...

...Yet one of the painful lessons learned by blacks is that racism surfaces, however subtly, when the threat posed by them becomes more immediate...

...And in the atmosphere of career-dominated apathy that prevails among students in the late '70s, these teachers constitute a more vital voice than ever before...

...The challenge of the case is to revise the tenure review process in a way that blots out these biases, without allowing it to become a popularity contest...

...That is precisely why Edwards' case oannot be approached in isolation...

...Having said that, let me also say that because of the aforementioned standards of depth, interest and sophistication are perforce culture-bound, it is undeniable that a subtle, perhaps even unconscious form of bias would act against a man whose areas of interest and personal style are as singular as Edwards...

...It is in this context of reaching out, of trying to get something done, that Edwards' participation in the 1970 black student strike at Cornell, and the instrumental role he played in the black boycott at the 1968 Olympics, must be understood...

...He does not walk into a classroom and deliver a standard, boring lecture that sails over the heads of his students...

...Indeed there are...

...One cannot help concluding, therefore, that other factors were involved in the sociology department's rejection (as well as in the subsequent condemnation of the five department members who publicly support Edwards by the Faculty Senate's Academic Freedom Subcommittee...

...It is so disturbing because it raises the general question of biases that have applied, and will continue to apply, to Edwards and to many other unorthodox scholars...

...Kimmel concludes by emphasizing that Edwards is not alone in his orientation—that there are many other black, women and young professors whose outlooks are different from "those who propose to evaluate them...

...It is more accurately seen as an instance of the university discriminating against a minority—in other words, as a case of "Berkeley vs...

...And I would submit that two subterranean issues have loomed very large in this controversy from the start—race, and the constituency Harry Edwards speaks to...

...Bernick himself writes: "A tenured professor . . . said that in talking to Edwards one could never forget that he was black...

...There are many other young, minority and women professors who concern themselves with a different audience, address different issues, and hold different sets of assumptions from those who propose to judge them...

...This statement not only raises the specter of academic elitism but is belied by Edwards' almost unqualified undergraduate support...

...In both cases, the rejection could easily mean that the faculty did not think the professor approached his material in a sufficiently deep, interesting or sophisticated manner...

...Popularity Is Not Enough by michael bernick Before discussing the "significant aspects of the Edwards situation" that he says my article neglected, Michael Kimmel praises Harry Edwards' teaching, particularly his energy and concern for students...

...Another fundamental aspect of the Edwards case has to do with constituencies...

...Ultimately, there are two fundamental questions in Edwards' fight for tenure: By whom should he be evaluated, and by what standards...

...Precisely because they are different, though...

...Another charge is that Edwards is a "performer," not an "academic professor...

...Many of the professors who voted against Edwards once fought to establish this right...

...Richard M. Eakin, a recently retired professor of zoology here, periodically costumed himself to deliver lectures as, say, Darwin might have...

...Some professors bemoan the fact that their efforts do not have the impact they would like (i.e., are not employed in the formulation of government policies), while Edwards' writing is widely read and often acted upon...

...In short, there was nothing about the tenure denial to sustain the charge of overt racism made by Kimmel, as well as by Edwards in campus speeches comparing the faculty to "Shockley and Jensen...

...Harry Edwards is black...

...He argues that Edwards "is not merely a professor who happens to be black, but one who orients himself to the black community...

...In eschewing the traditional route of academic advancement, Edwards has sacrificed neither his scholarly rigor nor his creative intellect...

...At first glance, there would seem to be little room for doubt about a positive decision on Edwards...

...The first specific issue Kimmel claims I "overlooked" is race...

...From this observation, Kimmel deduces that Edwards, as a black, represented "a threat" to the faculty, and that his rejection was racist in nature...

...Berkeley," (NL, May 9), Michael Bernick alternates between a discussion of the general problems surrounding tenure decisions at prestige universities, and a description of the specific case of Harry Edwards, who has been denied tenure by the sociology department at the University of California campus here (the question is still pending at the administrative review level...

...I agree with this assessment and think I emphasized these traits, as well as Edwards' ability to communicate to students not reached by other professors...

...In a sense, this is true...

...Neil Smelzer, Robert Bellah and Philip Selznick all have honorable pasts in the civil rights movement, and there is no reason to doubt them when they declare they sought to give Edwards the benefit of all uncertainties...

...He is deliberately controversial—chiding, twisting and cajoling his students until they cannot help developing for themselves the skills needed for sociological understanding...

...Nevertheless, when the statewide Affirmative Action Committee asked the Faculty Senate's Academic Freedom Subcommittee to consider the Harry Edwards case as a violation of academic freedom, the Subcommittee refused...

...He storms into the room and takes his classes on an intellectual journey...

...And it is this, I believe, that explains the faculty comments I cited...

...And he is not merely a professor who happens to be black, but one who orients himself to the black community, passionately speaking to its needs and concerns...

...It is curious, first of all, that Kimmel should point to the Cornell strike and the proposed Olympic boycott as examples of Edwards' efficacy—both actions fell far short of their announced goals...

...Kimmel argues that Edwards should be judged by those toward whom he directs his writing, rather than by white male sociologists...

...He continues to publish widely in scholarly journals, but has at the same time made his contributions available much beyond just those who have access to the formal sociological literature...