Arthur Gilbert, a tenured professor in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, will teach his controversial graduate level class, the Domestic Consequences of the Drug War, this spring, despite charges of sexual harassment which stemmed from allegations of misconduct in the class in April 2010.
The charges originated from two anonymous letters written by two female graduate students on April 1, 2010.
The case, which calls into question the freedom professors may exercise in academia, or their academic freedom, may also affect students’ learning experiences.
Teaching the Domestic Consequences of the Drug War at the graduate level this spring quarter will not come without a few precautions for the professor, said Gilbert.
Gilbert intends to have all students enrolled in the course sign a formal acknowledgement stating that they have read and understand the contents of the course, the topics and the readings. He also will encourage an open-door policy, in which students may contact or meet with him with concerns about the course and its contents without fear of consequence reflected in their course grade.
Because of this academic freedom consideration, two academic-related organizations, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), contacted DU in November and December 2011, calling them to exonerate Gilbert of any charges. DU has ignored these recommendations.
“So long as DU continues to ignore the input of its faculty and refuses to properly weigh the academic freedom considerations of his case, as FIRE has asked it to do, we will continue to highlight DU as a university that does not take the rights of its faculty seriously,” said Peter Bonilla, assistant director of FIRE, via email to the Clarion. “If a 50-year tenured member of the faculty can find himself the subject of such treatment, students could easily suffer a similar fate.”
The University of Denver’s media relations office declined to comment on the case, because it remains a confidential personnel issue, according to Kim DeVigil, the director of news and public affairs.
In letter correspondences to DU, the AAUP and FIRE have not only urged the university to revisit its decision upholding the sexual harassment charges against Gilbert, but also the university’s policies for sexual harassment cases and the university’s case review process.
“The University of Denver is treating its adult students like children who are too fragile to hear academic talk about sex and drugs,” said Adam Kissel, the vice president of programs at FIRE, in an article published on the FIRE website on Dec. 12, 2011.
Upon evaluating the University of Denver’s approach to addressing Gilbert’s case, Dean Saitta, the president of the DU chapter of the AAUP and a member of the 10-person Faculty Review Committee which examined the case, has recommended four policy changes to prevent future concerns about academic freedom: construct a forced administrative policy addressing the consequences which DU will enforce if a professor engages in allegedly harassing speech; create a task force to define limits between legal harassment processes and academic sexual harassment processes; give faculty the widest possible latitude in talking about controversial subjects; and determine what the evidentiary standard should be, but it must be clear and compelling evidence.
“I understand why DU decided to go against the recommendation of FIRE and AAUP. I don’t know if there’s face-saving involved or an unwillingness to have outsiders tell us how to do our business – I think that’s part of it,” said Saitta
“But, given the potential damage to Arthur and the unfairness of being condemned for crimes he didn’t commit, the decision should have been vacated and everybody should have sat down and had a conversation about the serious issues at stake here.”
The university did not formally meet with Gilbert prior to banishing him from campus for 112 days, from April 6 to July 27, 2011 – a point of contention for organizations like AAUP and FIRE.
“The imposition of a severe sanction without a prior faculty hearing is seriously at variance with established Association-supported procedures with regard to sexual harassment complaints, especially those related to academic expression in the classroom,” said Anita Levy, the associate secretary of AAUP, in a Nov. 30 letter to Chancellor Robert Coombe.
In fall quarter 2011, Gilbert taught a graduate class called Human Rights: Genocide. He is teaching two graduate-level classes this quarter, Religion and International Studies: The Apocalyptic Tradition and History, Culture and Conflict.
