Fighting Through Unfairness

Nathan Suh

Section 1

Week 2

There was a ton of unfairness Professor Valverde experienced through her battle for tenure.  Being shamed for having ADHD is not acceptable.  Needing to “[Tread] lightly” around “paternalistic” faculty is completely unacceptable as well.  But aside from those instances, the mobbing and many acts/aggressions to get her removed mostly seemed to me like a political battle instead of racism and sexism.  Was the bullying from her colleague based off of racism and gender, or was she simply an academic enemy?  I have no firsthand experience so I can’t say for myself, but my dad tells me about his experience in grad school.  He tells me that politics are often a huge part of higher academia and pride and ego often get in the way of civility - which clearly happens time and again as shown in our Professor's experiences.  I’m very glad that the appeal went through, as I really think she earned her place, fighting through unfairness and academically being “more accomplished than most in [her] rank”.  

Q: I would really like statistics on tenure granting/denial on people of different races and genders.