|
||||||||||
| Home | The Facts | Latest News | From Pat's Desk | How to Help | Supporters | About Pat | Links | Site Map | Contact | |
Appeal for JusticeThis page lists the latest developments in Pat Washington's appeal for justice. Petition Filed for Rehearing in Washington vs CSU Board of TrusteesClick here to see the petition. Support for the Rehearing
Responses to Appeal DenialFrom Janice Jordan . . . April 17, 2006 Supporters of Justice Everywhere, This morning I received the news that Professor Pat Washington was denied her appeal in her case against San Diego State University. The fact that her case has gone this far exposes the institutionalized racism that continues to exist in the underbelly of government systems and is as infectious as the winter flu bug. What happened? In 1996 Professor Pat Washington was hired by San Diego State University's (SDSU) Women's Studies Department. The Women's Studies Department at SDSU is the oldest in the nation. Created in 1970, it was seen as a leader in feminist theory and academics. Pat Washington was the first African-American to be hired on a tenure track in the Women's Studies Department, begging the question, "Why would a progressive discipline take so long to hire a black woman?" I am a graduate of both the Women's Studies Department and the Africana Studies Department with minors in both Religious and American Indian Studies. From this perspective, I believe I can discuss progressive academic disciplines as well as anyone. In 1997, I enrolled at SDSU and declared Women's Studies as my first major. However, my inherent radical views were never welcomed on campus by the Women's Studies Department. For instance, when I ran against another woman for Congress in 1998, I was somehow cast as betraying the cause of Women's Studies. In fact, during a Women's Studies luncheon, Professor Bonnie Zimmerman snapped at me, "Why would you do that [i.e., run against another woman]?" I replied with something like, “Just because she's a woman doesn't necessarily mean she represents a fresh female point of view.” I went on to cite this particular opponent’s support for current law enforcement practices and her pro-death penalty stance. Professor Zimmerman's testiness continued with me even when--as one of her students--I looked to her for assistance on one of her classroom assignments. I was confused about the content of the reading assignment, and she grabbed the book out of my hands from across her desk and snapped, "Oh what is it Janice?" I never asked her for assistance again. Professor Pat Washington was chosen as the "Most Influential Faculty Member" by the "Outstanding Graduating Senior" three years in a row. Professor Washington was also chosen “Most Influential Faculty Member” for two years in a row by winners of the "Quest for the Best" award, which recognizes both student activism and academic excellence. In addition, Professor Washington continually met the publishing requirements for tenure, even though the Women's Studies Department repeatedly increased these requirements every time Professor Washington met them. It’s inconceivable to me that the courts could not see the use of shifting standards as racial discrimination—especially since Professor Washington was subjected to three different sets of criteria in a 5-year span,and she was the only person in her department this happened to. At the time of my graduation, Professor Washington's struggle to keep her position at San Diego State University was in full swing. Sit-ins, teach-ins and rallies were taking place on campus. The division of students was interesting; Women's Studies Undergraduate students, Africana Studies students and Chicano Studies students were pitted against Graduate students from the Women's Studies Department. Of course there were cross-overs; however, to see the students from different disciplines supporting Professor Washington's cause was powerful. The Department Chair of Women's Studies, Susan Cayleff attempted to open up dialogue in her evening class the following day about the recent sit-in. I raised my hand and shared an experience I had a few years earlier with a white female Women's Studies Professor. She would call me at home, drunk, and late at night. When I questioned her about the disparate treatment of Professors by the Department, Professor Cayleff told me that it was handled. After sharing that story, a fellow classmate shared with me that the same white female Professor used to call her at 2:00 am--drunk! Professor Pat Washington is trying to liberate minds and is being punished for it! I still don't get it. I support Professor Pat Washington, and quite frankly I am disappointed in the Women's Studies Department at SDSU. Quite often I am ashamed that I received my diploma in this discipline from this department. However, there were a few other great instructors in the department that influenced and guided me on my journey of higher education. Supporters of Justice! Look at the hiring and firing practices of SDSU! Look at the racial and gender discrimination cases filed against this institution! Look at the people making the judicial decisions about discrimination! Power and privilege is guiding the outcome of Professor Washington's case. I had hoped for better. I had hoped for a democratic process that weighted the balance toward justice, equality, and fairness—and against the intolerance and corruption of bureaucrats and bullies who could care less about creating a fair, just, and equitable society. The reality and the shame of it all is this: future graduates of the Women's Studies Department are the ones losing out by not having a chance to take a class from a professor like Pat Washington. In Peace,
Janice Jordan Dear Janice, I am so determined to support Pat in her efforts. It is critical to all institutions of higher learning in California, perhaps everywhere. My knowledge of California is primarily of the State system. Here at Sac state, many departments are shockingly inadequate. If I did not care about Pat and other faculty, what about the students, cheated every year of all but a mediocre education and a strange one in some cases. Getting rid of quality teachers has reached epidemic proportions at Sac State in the college of Education, particularly the counseling department. I spent several years at the University of Colorado at Denver, learning from an excellent prof named Megan McLard. She was eccentric, brilliant, appropriately demanding and a closeted lesbian. Without attention to her sexual orientation, several in her department - I think it was English which housed Women's Studies at that school - systematically got rid of her because they didn't like her! The ouster was primarily the work of one woman. Such is the case at Sac State where the questionable head of the department spent 9 years downgrading the most highly rated prof in the department for all the years she had been there. That woman finally gave up the fight this year. The students are outraged. No one cares. The head of the department came as part of a package deal along with her husband, a dean from Colorado, hired in another department with the understanding that his wife would get a position in the counseling dept. She has no degree in counseling. No one cares about that either. She has driven away the best teachers and hired others illegally! Here at Sac state, the issue is racism and other malicious isms along with an insidious form of indifference. Thank you for your conscientious and informed support of Pat. She is loved and valued by so many of us.
Britt Alkire
To: letters@uniontrib.com To the Editor: Of course Pat Washington's Appeals Court did not see evidence of racism and denied her suit seeking a jury trial; the three judges are white, and we white people do our best to avoid seeing racism. I am a white senior citizen currently working on a Ph.D. in anti-racism, and I know full well that I have to make serious efforts to be aware of the racism that most people of color experience every day, because it is not part of my experience, it is not part of my world. It's so easy to say I do not see it, and so it must not be there - so easy and so wrong. Dr. Washington exceeded all SDSU's requirements for tenure. She was voted "Teacher of the Year" three times. But she was the only African American tenure track professor in the history of the Women's Study Department, and her colleagues said they didn't like her. They said she is not a team player. This phrase is often used by us white folks as code for "this person of color is insisting on taking notice of discrimination, which makes me uncomfortable; he should shut up and suck it up and get along." And indeed, many people of color do exactly that, because they fear that what happened to Dr. Washington will happen to them. But it is not their job to make me comfortable in my racism, however unconscious that racism may be. It is their job to demand that they be treated as decency and the law require: with respect, equity, and justice. It is very dangerous for legal opinion to offer employers the right to terminate any competent employee on the basis of expressed dislike. Does anyone believe that educated people are going to say that it is the employee's race, gender, age, class, religion, or sexual orientation that they don't like, even if it underlies, consciously or unconsciously, their discomfort? When the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause for discrimination and recommended that SDSU reinstate Dr. Washington, SDSU chose rather to spend thousands and thousands of your dollars and mine on fighting to maintain the injustice. Nor is this an instance only of the Women's Studies department; the same kind of unpleasant racism has engendered legal challenges in other departments on the San Diego State campus, and the university has lost at least some of them, but continues to spend public monies on similar battles instead of learning about their obligation. Do not blame Dr. Washington for the waste of your money. She had the right and, in my view, the obligation to seek justice. The fact that people of dominant perspective, whatever their color, continue to deny her that justice is shameful. Not astonishing, for it continues to happen over and over, nationwide. But shame on the appeals court, and more than shame on San Diego State University.
Katie Klumpp |