Special privilege: Should professors keep tenure votes to themselves?
Boiarsky, Carolyn
Special privilege: Should professors keep tenure votes to themselves? Carolyn Boiarsky It started out as a routine civil rights case involving sex discrimination at the University of Georgia....
...Why did the committee instigate the new secret proceeding...
...Then, suddenly, one of the male faculty members charged that the court was interfering with his academic freedom, and he went to some lengths to prove his point...
...Blaubergs, an assistant professor, sued the university for failing to grant her tenure and promotion because of her sex and her activities in women's studies...
...In addition, Blaubergs, a Canadian citizen, had sued the university a year previously, contending that the rule denying tenure to an alien was illegal...
...But, in a preliminary hearing, Blaubergs was completely upstaged by Dinnan, who refused to state how he voted as a member of the committee considering her promotion...
...Is Dinnan's academic freedom actually in jeopardy...
...Perhaps it is time that universities open some windows in their ivory towers and let the sun shine in...
...Nor is the university's academic freedom "to determine for itself who shall teach," as specified by former Justice Frankfurter in a previous case, being subverted...
...Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as amended in 1972, specifically gives the Government the right to intervene in universities when discrimination is suspected...
...James A. Dinnan was originally cast as a bit player in a case featuring Maija Blaubergs, a faculty member at the University of Georgia...
...In fact, the committee which reviewed Blaubergs's qualifications invoked the secret ballot on the advice of an attorney whose legal opinion the committee sought immediately prior to the promotion review...
...Blaubergs believes it is because the committee knew that a suit was imminent...
...The secret ballot for peer review is not an accepted practice in many institutions of higher education...
...Blaubergs, now terminated by the university and unemployed, seemed all but forgotten in the/ brouhaha over Dinnan's alleged loss of academic freedom...
...Under present law, his secret ballot does not receive the same privilege as a citizen's ballot in a political election or an employe's ballot in a union election...
...It would appear that universities, which are supposed to safeguard this nation's intellectual integrity, might take a lesson from the state legislatures which have enacted sunshine laws and opened their deliberations to the public...
...The case, which is now pending before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, does not hinge on the question of academic freedom but on whether or not the court is willing to grant a new privilege to university faculty members regarding their votes on tenure and promotion...
...What Dinnan is not free to do is to refuse to obey a lawful court order to testify how he has voted...
...And there lies the crux of the argument...
...From then on, Dinnan stole the show, employing enough theatrics to satisfy even a New York critic...
...While the need to preserve academic freedom is unquestioned, it must be balanced with claims of civil rights...
...Charging that disclosure of his secret ballot would infringe on his First Amendment rights, Dinnan defiantly went to jail for ninety days on a con-tempt-of-court charge rather than reveal his vote...
...She believes the secret ballot was invoked to protect the individual members of the committee from a possible discrimination suit...
...Department of Labor investigation of alleged sexual discrimination at the university were expected to be released soon...
...Results of a U.S...
...And does it take precedence over Blaubergs's civil rights...
...He vowed to defect to another country if the appellate court where the case is now pending upholds the lower court ruling...
...Dinnan claims a secret ballot is necessary on a vote of tenure and promotion to safeguard the committee members from outside pressure to vote for or against a candidate...
...Dinnan, as a representative of the university, is free to vote for whomever he wishes for whatever reasons he determines as long as these reasons do not include race or sex...
...While the secret ballot can protect committee members from outside pressure, it can also cloak sexual or racial discrimination...
...Dinnan surrendered to Federal marshals clad in his academic robes and returned to his classroom at the end of his sentence wearing his prison clothes...
...She had won that aspect of her case...
...Carolyn Boiarsky is a free-lance writer in Atlanta...
...After all, Dinnan is still free to believe and to state that Blaubergs's dossier does not qualify her for a promotion...
...The argument is a weak one...
...Nor has the secret ballot been a long-accepted custom at the university...
...Moreover, the state of Georgia has no law, nor are there any bylaws or even guidelines published by the University of Georgia, which specifically recommend the use of a secret ballot...
...There are no previous cases which demonstrate that without secrecy such pressures do occur...
Vol. 45 • February 1981 • No. 2
