Kent State Faculty Senate proposes No Confidence vote against Provost

A group of faculty members at Kent State distributed a petition to fellow workers in an attempt to gather signatures for a No-Confidence vote against the provost.

According to emails sent to faculty, George Garrison, professor of Pan African Studies, started thinking about creating the petition after Navjotika Kumar, assistant professor of modern and contemporary art, was denied tenure by Provost Todd Diacon.

According to results from a Kent State Faculty Senate meeting in March, presented in one of Garrison’s emails sent to fellow faculty, Kumar received a total of 29 unanimous yes votes from the Kent State Tenure Review Committee, along with support from the Director and the Dean. Kumar received mostly positive support from individuals involved in the Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion process (RTP), but was denied tenure by Diacon.

In Garrison’s petition letter to Kent State faculty, he accused Diacon of violating several university policies, including the university Tolling Policy, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the contract between AAUP-KSU and Kent State University.

He also presented an RTP process opposite of Kumar’s, labeled “Professor B,” that showed that the professor received six yes votes from the Tenure Review Committee, and 27 no votes from the committee. While “Professor B” was given more no votes than yes votes, Provost Diacon granted him tenure.

In a document created by the faculty senate, 18 points on how to resolve the RTP process were established, with many points revolving around the idea of faculty input and inclusion in making decisions regarding the process. The quoted material below is the first point on the list:

“Whereas, Kent State University recognizes that members of the faculty are uniquely qualified to participate in the governance of the University, particularly with respect to academic matters.”

In a letter written to Garrison on April 29, Kumar said that the No-Confidence vote petition should focus “on the fact that he has been exposed and shown to have violated the CBA and RTP policy,” she said. “And on the fact that a critical mass of KSU faculty are outraged by how he is making RTP decisions; and on representing and addressing the outrage and voices of the faculty.”

In her letter, Kumar said she expected more female signatures on the petition because Diacon was sexist in choosing faculty “worthy” of tenure.

“It is clear that for Todd Diacon a man with 27 “No” votes is worthy of both tenure and promotion, but a woman with unanimous votes is not even worthy of tenure (I didn’t apply for promotion),” she said. “If this is not sexist, I don’t know what is.”

Kumar suffered breast cancer during her the tenure application process, and stated that Diacon “used her medical leave for treatment and disability as the basis to distort her research record and fire her.”

“No one should have to lose their job and have their record distorted because they got sick,” Kumar said. “To my mind, this is so shocking that I have hardly wrapped my head around it a year later.”

Linda Walker, school of music, and Carol Salus, school of art, are also supporters of Garrison’s petition in support of Kumar and the No-Confidence vote against the provost. Walker, Salus, Garrison and Kumar were contacted, but did not respond.

The petition is still being sent around, and the date of the meeting for the No-Confidence vote has yet to be determined.

Emily Vincent, director of university and media relations, was also contacted for comments, but she was unfamiliar with the subject.