“Unless you appreciate these transformations at the molecular level,” he said, “I don’t think you can be a good doctor, and I don’t want you treating patients.”
In August, Dr Jones received a short note from Gregory Gabadadze, Dean of Science, terminating his contract. Dr. Jones’ performance, he wrote, “has not reached the standards we demand of our faculty”.
Dr. Gabadadze declined to be interviewed. But Mr Beckman defended the decision, saying Dr Jones had been the target of several complaints from students about his ‘disdain, unresponsiveness, condescension and opacity about grading’.
Dr. Jones’ course evaluations, he added, “were by far the worst, not only among members of the chemistry department, but of all undergraduate science courses at the university.”
The professors in the chemistry department pushed back. In a letter to Dr. Gabadadze and other deans, they wrote that they feared setting “a precedent, utterly devoid of due process, which could undermine faculty freedoms and thereby weaken teaching practices.” proven”.
Nathaniel J. Traaseth, one of about 20 mostly tenured chemistry professors who signed the letter, said the university’s actions could discourage rigorous teaching, especially given the growing trend of students to file petitions.
“Now professors who aren’t tenured are looking at this and thinking, ‘Wow, what if this happens to me and they don’t renew my contract? “, Did he declare.