Did Amy Bishop experience abuse in the workplace, particularly regarding her candidacy for tenure? Our guess is that she did.
Tenure decisions are based on a junior faculty member's performance in three areas--research, teaching, and service. As the old phrase "publish or perish" implies, the research component often is far and away the most important factor.
All informed, objective accounts that we've seen indicate Amy Bishop was a top-notch researcher. One of the most insightful pieces on the Huntsville tragedy comes from Eric Fleischauer, of the Decatur Daily. He quotes Eric Seemann, a psychology professor who was one of Bishop's colleagues at UAH. Writes Fleischauer:
Reports about Bishop's teaching ability are a mixed bag. Some students rated her highly, finding her to be insightful, effective, and caring. Others complained, saying she lectured mostly from the textbook, gave unfair tests, and had a distant manner.
But Bishop's record as a researcher, alone, indicates that she probably met the criteria for tenure. UAH recently received an Area Research Enhancement Award (AREA) from the National Institues of Health, a grant designed to promote research at universities that have not traditionally received much NIH support. Who brought home that major grant? Amy Bishop.
Another insightful article comes from Shaila Dewan, of The New York Times. She quotes Bishop's husband, Dr. James Anderson, as saying that his wife had won the first round of her appeal on the tenure issue. It appears that a faculty review committee disagreed with the decision to deny tenure, but UAH Provost Vistasp Kharbari upheld it and President David Williams signed off on that final ruling. Writes Dewan:
The Huntsville Times' Lee Roop picked up on that theme. Writes Roop:
Administrators overriding the findings of review committees seems to be an ugly pattern at UA. I know of at least two other similar situations:
* In my case, UAB's own employee grievance committee found that I should not have been terminated. I sat through the entire four-hour grievance hearing, and there was no evidence that I should have been disciplined at all. Based on the findings, the committee apparently did not believe a number of statements from my former supervisor, Pam Powell. And yet, UAB's HR director at the time, Cheryl Locke, ignored her own committee and upheld my termination. UAB President Carol Garrison signed off on that.
* In the Seema Gupta case, a rogue program director named Dr. Allan Wilke apparently caused many of the problems at the family-medicine residency program in Huntsville. Wilke was demoted after Gupta left the program and filed a lawsuit; he now teaches at a school in The Bahamas. But Wilke didn't leave until he had badly damaged the careers of multiple residents. In Gupta's case, Wilke non-renewed her after the second year of a three-year program, even though the head of the internal medicine program said she already was performing at a third-year level. Gupta appealed and a review committee found that she should not have been non-renewed. She returned to the program, and Wilke promptly placed her on probation--even though the review committee had made no such recommendation. That caused Dr. Gupta to leave the program, in what appears to be a classic case of "constructive discharge" under the law.
Tenure decisions are based on a junior faculty member's performance in three areas--research, teaching, and service. As the old phrase "publish or perish" implies, the research component often is far and away the most important factor.
All informed, objective accounts that we've seen indicate Amy Bishop was a top-notch researcher. One of the most insightful pieces on the Huntsville tragedy comes from Eric Fleischauer, of the Decatur Daily. He quotes Eric Seemann, a psychology professor who was one of Bishop's colleagues at UAH. Writes Fleischauer:
Despite her excellent research ability, Seemann was not surprised she struggled to obtain tenure."Amy was kind of hard to get along with," he said. "I've talked to people who said, "Wow, she can be really arrogant,' or be really headstrong. I knew that to be true. But at the same time she was brilliant. She was really one of UAH's rising research stars. People I know in biological sciences would say, "She's a great researcher, but she's lousy to work with.' "
She was brilliant and she knew it.
"At one meeting I was with Amy, she was complaining to a group of us. She said she was denied tenure not because she was a lousy researcher -- she's not, quite the opposite -- and not because she didn't have good classes, she believed she did -- I think some might say otherwise -- but because she was accused of being arrogant, aloof and superior. And she said, "I am.'
"She said, "I am arrogant, I am aloof and I am superior in my attitude. But it doesn't mean I don't want to get along with people.' "
Reports about Bishop's teaching ability are a mixed bag. Some students rated her highly, finding her to be insightful, effective, and caring. Others complained, saying she lectured mostly from the textbook, gave unfair tests, and had a distant manner.
But Bishop's record as a researcher, alone, indicates that she probably met the criteria for tenure. UAH recently received an Area Research Enhancement Award (AREA) from the National Institues of Health, a grant designed to promote research at universities that have not traditionally received much NIH support. Who brought home that major grant? Amy Bishop.
Another insightful article comes from Shaila Dewan, of The New York Times. She quotes Bishop's husband, Dr. James Anderson, as saying that his wife had won the first round of her appeal on the tenure issue. It appears that a faculty review committee disagreed with the decision to deny tenure, but UAH Provost Vistasp Kharbari upheld it and President David Williams signed off on that final ruling. Writes Dewan:
Mr. Anderson said that months ago, the university administration overruled a successful appeal of the decision to deny Dr. Bishop tenure in spring 2009.
"She won her appeal," he said, "and the provost canned it."
The university has declined to elaborate on the details of Dr. Bishop's tenure application, saying only that she was denied last spring and that she could stay at the university only until the end of this academic year. Even if a faculty member successfully appeals a tenure denial, the final decision rests with the administration.
The Huntsville Times' Lee Roop picked up on that theme. Writes Roop:
Bishop's husband, Jim Anderson, said Monday that Bishop won her appeal at one level based on "inadequate review" of the dossier, but that Kharbari "turned that down."
Administrators overriding the findings of review committees seems to be an ugly pattern at UA. I know of at least two other similar situations:
* In my case, UAB's own employee grievance committee found that I should not have been terminated. I sat through the entire four-hour grievance hearing, and there was no evidence that I should have been disciplined at all. Based on the findings, the committee apparently did not believe a number of statements from my former supervisor, Pam Powell. And yet, UAB's HR director at the time, Cheryl Locke, ignored her own committee and upheld my termination. UAB President Carol Garrison signed off on that.
* In the Seema Gupta case, a rogue program director named Dr. Allan Wilke apparently caused many of the problems at the family-medicine residency program in Huntsville. Wilke was demoted after Gupta left the program and filed a lawsuit; he now teaches at a school in The Bahamas. But Wilke didn't leave until he had badly damaged the careers of multiple residents. In Gupta's case, Wilke non-renewed her after the second year of a three-year program, even though the head of the internal medicine program said she already was performing at a third-year level. Gupta appealed and a review committee found that she should not have been non-renewed. She returned to the program, and Wilke promptly placed her on probation--even though the review committee had made no such recommendation. That caused Dr. Gupta to leave the program, in what appears to be a classic case of "constructive discharge" under the law.
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