To: The Administration of Connecticut College and The Gender and Women's Studies department at Connecticut College
Connecticut College: Retain Dr. Andrea Baldwin
We demand that the administration of Connecticut College:
1) Make a public apology to Dr. Andrea Baldwin through an email to all students, faculty, staff, and trustees
2) Make a clear outline of what is going to happen to Africana studies students during the next academic year (2018-2019) as to how students will be able to progress and/or finish their major/minor. As Dr. Andrea Baldwin will no longer be teaching at Connecticut College next year and a majority of the professors who have courses that fulfill requirements and/or electives in the degree are going on sabbatical next year, leaving only a few professors left to help students progress and/or finish their major/minor is insufficient for the Africana Studies Program to continue educating students.
3) Make a clear outline of the 5-year plan for making Africana studies into a department.
This includes:
1) The number of tenured positions
2) The number of tenure-track positions
3) The number of non-tenure/tenure-track positions
4) A financial plan supporting the department
4) That SABs work directly under Dean of Faculty Abigail Van Slyck and who’s work directly connects to hiring, as this will make the hiring process far more democratic and gives students a more influential voice.
5) Offer Baldwin a secured tenure-track position once her three-year visiting professor term is up.
6) The resignation of Professor and chair of the Gender and Women's studies department: Danielle Egan, because she is the one who has made the decision to not keep Dr. Baldwin at Connecticut college and is a perfect example an opportunity hire being given to a white cisgender woman, rather than a woman of color.
1) Make a public apology to Dr. Andrea Baldwin through an email to all students, faculty, staff, and trustees
2) Make a clear outline of what is going to happen to Africana studies students during the next academic year (2018-2019) as to how students will be able to progress and/or finish their major/minor. As Dr. Andrea Baldwin will no longer be teaching at Connecticut College next year and a majority of the professors who have courses that fulfill requirements and/or electives in the degree are going on sabbatical next year, leaving only a few professors left to help students progress and/or finish their major/minor is insufficient for the Africana Studies Program to continue educating students.
3) Make a clear outline of the 5-year plan for making Africana studies into a department.
This includes:
1) The number of tenured positions
2) The number of tenure-track positions
3) The number of non-tenure/tenure-track positions
4) A financial plan supporting the department
4) That SABs work directly under Dean of Faculty Abigail Van Slyck and who’s work directly connects to hiring, as this will make the hiring process far more democratic and gives students a more influential voice.
5) Offer Baldwin a secured tenure-track position once her three-year visiting professor term is up.
6) The resignation of Professor and chair of the Gender and Women's studies department: Danielle Egan, because she is the one who has made the decision to not keep Dr. Baldwin at Connecticut college and is a perfect example an opportunity hire being given to a white cisgender woman, rather than a woman of color.
Why is this important?
It has come to the attention of the students of Connecticut College that Dr. Andrea Baldwin is not being offered a tenure-track position, without first having to compete in a national search. We (the students of Connecticut College) feel that this completely devalues all the work Dr. Baldwin has done on this campus. This includes taking on many voluntary academic positions, such as the co-chair of Africana Studies and (position) of the CCSRE. Furthermore, it does not recognize all the work she has done for her students, both academically and personally.
There is a long history of professors of color (specifically women of color) being denied tenure track at Connecticut College. As it currently stands, only 26.4% of full-time faculty are professors of color and only 7.1% of full-time faculty are Black or African American, this does not separate tenure, tenure-track professors. We find this disgraceful in an institution that claims to pride itself on equity and inclusion. Not only does Connecticut College fail to hire an adequate amount of professors of color, they fail even more gravely to retain them. Especially women of color.
It is infuriating that students were not involved in the decision to forfeit Dr. Baldwins possibility of being a tenure-track hire. We find this to be especially disgraceful because the college prides itself on including students in these types of decisions and holds shared governance with its students to be a top priority.
Finally, what is most obvious and disgraceful, is that the GWS department has now twice in the past five years created possibilities for exceptional “opportunity hires”. Both professors who were lucky enough to benefit from these opportunity hires are both white cisgendered professors, who were both granted tenure. The hires took place in a time where the GWS department was at risk of “no longer being a department”. It is clear that the department of “Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality” is, with out Dr. Baldwin, at risk again. This is why Dr. Bawdwin should have been and should still be considered for an opportunity hire to be placed in immediate tenure, or at least be granted a tenure-track position.
It should be a priority of the school to retain professors of color by any means necessary especially when they have so clearly been valuable to student experience here at Conn.
There is a long history of professors of color (specifically women of color) being denied tenure track at Connecticut College. As it currently stands, only 26.4% of full-time faculty are professors of color and only 7.1% of full-time faculty are Black or African American, this does not separate tenure, tenure-track professors. We find this disgraceful in an institution that claims to pride itself on equity and inclusion. Not only does Connecticut College fail to hire an adequate amount of professors of color, they fail even more gravely to retain them. Especially women of color.
It is infuriating that students were not involved in the decision to forfeit Dr. Baldwins possibility of being a tenure-track hire. We find this to be especially disgraceful because the college prides itself on including students in these types of decisions and holds shared governance with its students to be a top priority.
Finally, what is most obvious and disgraceful, is that the GWS department has now twice in the past five years created possibilities for exceptional “opportunity hires”. Both professors who were lucky enough to benefit from these opportunity hires are both white cisgendered professors, who were both granted tenure. The hires took place in a time where the GWS department was at risk of “no longer being a department”. It is clear that the department of “Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality” is, with out Dr. Baldwin, at risk again. This is why Dr. Bawdwin should have been and should still be considered for an opportunity hire to be placed in immediate tenure, or at least be granted a tenure-track position.
It should be a priority of the school to retain professors of color by any means necessary especially when they have so clearly been valuable to student experience here at Conn.