Students under the moniker "Save The Teachers" gathered outside of ASU West's Faculty Administration Building to voice their displeasure Wednesday with Dean Elizabeth Langland's policy decisions at ASU West, which include a recent decision to cut part-time faculty positions and to cancel some classes that are normally offered.
The group of about 10 said they are a "united group of students, faculty members and taxpayers who are concerned about the impending loss of the existing valued and irreplaceable faculty associates, or FAs, and lecturers at the ASU West Campus and the cancellation of many important classes."
According to various supporters of "Save The Teachers," this is not the first time Langland has "betrayed her faculty." They claimed that Langland was at UC Davis four years ago and implemented the same policy she is attempting to implement at ASU West. The policy culminated in a successful 2004 Public Employee Relations Board ruling against her.
Bingham Lowe, a criminal justice senior, and Brian Liljegren, a political science senior, were the students who helped organize the protest.
Along with the students, two UC Davis faculty members, Gary Sue Goodman and John Stenzel, who worked under Langland at UC Davis four years ago, assisted with the demonstration.
Both professors said that what Langland is attempting to do will not raise the level of education of her students but actually have an adverse affect on them in the long term.
"The quality of a student's education isn't contingent on a U.S. News & World Report ranking," said Goodman, a UC Davis professor in the English department. "[Education] is based on the quality of an education that students are given by their professors."
Stenzel was also distressed in what he said he saw as Langland's attempt to increase grants and monies to the University at the price of losing quality teachers.
"You cannot demoralize a faculty within a college by claiming they aren't as qualified to teach because they are part time," Stenzel said, "especially when considering the fact that full-time faculty are hired more for their research than actual student-teacher interaction."
However, Matt Crum, an ASU West spokesman, said he thinks that if students were to look at the bigger picture, they would see that they are receiving a more prestigious education with the hiring of tenured faculty.
"Frankly, people who are excellent scholars will bring leading-edge research to the classrooms here at ASU West," Crum said. "From a mentorship perspective, full-time faculties are much more advantageous for students to develop working relationships, especially if they want to get into a good graduate school. A letter of recommendation from a long-term faculty carries much more weight then that of an FA."
Crum added that students should understand that studies suggest tenured faculties are more beneficial.
"No one is trying to say that FA's aren't good teachers, but, again, many studies have shown the benefit of tenured faculty facilitate a learning environment," he said. "I can understand that a student who has been taught by an FA may be upset, but the bigger picture is that Dean Langland is moving the college in the right direction."
Thus far, "Save The Teachers" students said they have received more than 1,000 signatures in support of their petition, which asserts that they "strenuously disagree with [Dean Langland's] policy and demand that ASU offer to all existing faculty associates and lecturers a three-year, renewable contract and that a peer review and a performance review be conducted before dismissal."
Reach the reporter at: joseph.hermiz@asu.edu.
