Idaho State University has asked the chair of its physics department to resign his leadership post for allowing an Ecuadorian professor without proper visa papers to teach classes, the Associated Press reported. The chairman, Steven Shropshire, will remain a professor, a university spokesman said. The Ecuadorian professor had taught legally at another American university but lacked documentation listing Idaho State as his employer, the spokesman said.
RSS
Follow The Ticker through your favorite RSS reader.
6 Responses to Idaho State U. Demotes a Department Chair in Dispute Over Visiting Professor’s Visa
paldy - September 25, 2009 at 8:18 am
Idaho State U is a great University. I worked there for 18 years. We drive our concepts too much by image, one should not let a negitive image build over this, especially since it happens everywhere in higher education.
11262324 - September 25, 2009 at 10:05 am
Uh, so where was the International Services Office, as well as the Office of the Provost, and the Human Resources folks??! Seems like everyone dropped the ball on this one and so they canned the department chair. Typical…..
11262324 - September 25, 2009 at 10:06 am
Uh, so where was the International Services Office, as well as the Office of the Provost, and the Human Resources folks??! Seems like everyone dropped the ball on this one and so they canned the department chair. Typical…..
isucetl - September 25, 2009 at 11:56 am
Poster #11262324: In fact, ISU’s international office, arts and sciences deans office, and human resources all told the chair very specifically that the instructor could not teach or even officially volunteer without his H1B visa being in order. Not only did the chair defy these instructions, he misled the dean’s office when they asked directly about whether the instructor in question was teaching students anyway.The sad thing here is really that the department chair’s arrogance in acting as if rules (and laws) don’t apply to him or his department put the students’ educational experiences in jeopardy. Because of the chair’s actions, the students did not have an instructor for their course–which several of them need to graduate this year–for the first three or four weeks of their semester, nor did he seem to think this was a problem, since he did not bother assigning anyone else to teach the course.And, to add to the primary harm concerning students, Shropshire exposed the university to the potential hefty fines that the INS levies against such workplace violations . . . this in a university which is already working mightily to meet increasingly tight fiscal challenges.Unconscionable behavior on the chair’s part, and unthinking and uncritical kneejerk response on the part of Poster #11262324 . . . .
cwinton - September 25, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Sad indeed … all of this apparently revolved around a technicality; namely, the name of the university listed on the H1B visa (which apparently was taken care of several weeks after the term had commenced). It sounds like more than a few people dropped the ball on this. Shropshire is (or was) new to the chair position and perhaps could have used better guidance from above regarding the time period necessary for INS to process the visa request. The upper administration may have covered their collective rear ends by dumping Shropshire, but I don’t think that absolves them from not having acted more proactively. It sounds like the University president should commission an independent review of the whole mess to see why it happened and how this kind of miscue can be avoided in the future.
11_05 - September 27, 2009 at 12:27 pm
It not surprising to see that the ISU Admin has an enthusiastic shill in the Center for Teaching and Learning. It would be better, however, if this individual represented the facts fairly and accurately. Since I suspect that isucetl may actually be an Associate Provost – a person in the decision making chain at ISU concerning this event – this makes the misrepresentation of the situation here appalling. Though there is plenty or room to point fingers in this situation it is clear that isucetl (and ISU admin) is intent on pointing fingers only at Dr. Shropshire – a 19 year member of the faculty and Distinguisued Public Servant. This entire situation could have been remedied early on if the principals would have merely agreed to get together in one of the many meeting rooms sprinkled liberally throughout the ISU campus to figure out a solution to an embarassing problem brought on by recent layoffs, long administrative delays replacing faculty that were laid off inappropriately and bungling in the International Affairs Office (none of which Dr. Shropshire is responsible for). Of course that would assume that reason prevails on the ISU campus and there is scant evidence for much of that.The current administration at ISU is staring down the barrel of lawsuits from faculty, student protests, a vote of no confidence, difficulties with upcoming accreditation and a state board of education that is increasingly impatient with an institution headed in the wrong direction (the latter made no better by the fact that the current ISU provost has publicly questioning the qualifications of members of the State Board of Education).The worst part of all of this is that it was entirely unnecessary. What should have been a simple jig was turned into a complete screw-up-athon because ISU currently resembles Bosnia-Herezgovinia more than a University. Whatever is the opposite of leadership is what prevails there right now. The real problem is that ISU is currently run more by vendettas and emotion than reason. None of this appears likely to change as long as the current players are on the board. And is is very clear that Dr. Shropshire isn’t much responsible for any of this.