Students will protest for assistant professor

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A group of Youngstown State University criminal justice students will stage what they say will be a peaceful protest on behalf of one of their assistant professors at noon Friday at The Rock.
The students want YSU President David C. Sweet to intervene in a tenure issue involving Dr. Eric See, assistant professor of criminal justice in the College of Health and Human Services.
They say See is being denied tenure at the university and faces dismissal.
The students said they've written letters to Sweet asking him to intervene but have been unable to arrange a meeting with him.
The university issued a statement Wednesday saying that it will follow the tenure process as outlined in the faculty contract. That means See will have to pursue an appeal of his tenure denial.
See has been at YSU for eight years, the first two as an instructor and the last six as an assistant professor on a tenure track.
Support
He said the tenured faculty in his department have given him a unanimous vote of support for tenure and the chairman of his department has backed his bid as well.
The college dean opposed tenure, however, and the provost, who makes the final recommendation to the president, supported the dean's position, See said.
The final decision rests with the president, he said.
"This came as a complete shot in the dark," See said, arguing that he has met the department criteria for tenure and has never had any negative evaluations on his performance.
He said the dean questioned the level of his scholarship, which covers things like publishing papers, securing grants, writing books and making presentations at conferences and seminars.
See said he was surprised to learn that the dean thought he should have done more.
He said he has filed for an appeal of tenure denial but that process will run into next March.
Without tenure, he will be fired at the end of the school year, the end of his six-year tenure track, he said.
See said he only recently learned of the students' plan to support him with a protest and signatures on a petition asking Sweet to take action. He didn't ask for that support but is "overwhelmed and amazed" at the steps the students are taking on his behalf.