JUNE 21, 2017
American University’s student-led newspaper, The Eagle, reports that Carolyn Brown, an assistant professor in AU’s School of Communication, is appealing Provost Scott Bass’s decision to deny her tenure. In her appeal, Professor Brown asserts that she was unfairly denied tenure in retaliation for her activism on race and gender issues on AU’s campus, and for encouraging students in her broadcast journalism course to report on these issues.
Professor Brown also alleges that Provost Bass’s denial of her tenure breached her contract with the University because he conducted a “flawed and biased” statistical analysis of her student evaluations, in violation of AU’s Faculty Manual. She further alleges that Provost Bass refused to read letters of support written on her behalf, and ignored empirical evidence demonstrating inherent race and gender bias in student evaluations. Professor Brown is currently the only Latina professor in AU’s School of Communication.
This comes after two AU professors, Maria Ivancin and Loubna Skalli Hanna, also Bernabei & Kabat clients, filed suit against AU after being denied tenure in 2013 and 2015, respectively. They claim that the University breached their contracts, and that Provost Bass’s actions were discriminatory on the basis of age.
