Due Process Requires Unity

One faculty member is terminated on June 20, months after the University failed to notify him by December 31 as required in the Faculty Handbook and even after he signed a reappointment agreement in April. Also, during April, the President gives a secret appointment to a resigned employee to serve as Dean during the same time that the official areas of the University give a legitimate appointment of Dean to another person that the President also signs. The University honors the secret arrangement but waits to tell the standing Dean until June 29, one day before her appointment ends.

One of these faculty members has served an illustrious career at Shaw for a number of years; but of this, no account is made. The other has a wife and child who depend on him for food; but of this, no sympathy is deserved. The rights of the accusing supervisors to their prey are far superior to sordid values like kindness, compassion, and truth.

Let it be clear that the complaints of an irrational supervisor are frequently enough to endanger a faculty’s employment. The faculty’s testimony means nothing. They can bring no witnesses for themselves. As a result, Shaw’s system of discipline typically hears only one side, and that side is the side of the accusing supervisor.

We must not allow these two gallant employees to be forced into lengthy legal remedies challenging the right of any President to dismiss people in certain circumstances. Our issue is mostly a moral one affecting the integrity of Shaw University. Our administrators must not continue to endorse practices that mistreat our employees by targeting them unfairly for dismissal, by tormenting them during their stay, and by allowing them no processes to defend themselves. These disgraceful practices undermine employee morale, sap the willingness of employees to help Shaw University, and keep us all in perpetual states of distress.

When the voice of faculty is ignored and unappreciated, when the rights of faculty to due process and appeal are irrelevant, and when cruel, insensitive treatment to employees is tolerated, then it is incumbent on each of us to reflect on the meaning of a compassionate life. Faculty must unite now to end the shameless disregard for Professor Russell Robinson and Dr. Elvira Williams. By doing so, we take a step towards assuring all of us have chances for compassionate lives.

James Nelson, Jr., Professor, College of Arts & Sciences