Letters to the editor

(Re: "Fact vs. friction," Kerux Sept. 29, 2006)

Thank you, Kerux editors and reporters, for treating me with respect and for taking my case seriously. I was impressed with your maturity and your unbiased investigative reporting. You treated my story as your own concern, noting that the student senate had recommended I receive a regular 2-year appointment.

Regarding sex discrimination, you write that "numerous individuals" say their experience at CTS was good. Such testimonials should be heard, but it is important to emphasize that I was the only full-time female professor in 130 years, so there is no peer for comparison.

It is true that I requested that the names of my colleagues (who had no responsibility whatever for my terminal appointment) not be mentioned in print — surely not as a cover-up on my part, but rather to protect them.

It is a false comparison to equate the due process denied me with the charge that I "denied the administrators ... due process" by going public. There is an established due process for professors in academia, such as a warning before being given a terminal appointment and freedom to appeal without threats. There is no comparable due process for administrators.

Again, Kerux, thank you for your interest and investigation. It is what I have wanted for more than three years. How different my situation might be today if concerned colleagues would have come to me early on with similar questions, asking to see the documents and reporting their findings.

Ruth Tucker
Grand Rapids, Mich.

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Corrections

In the Sept. 29 story "Telling the Truth for God's Sake," the name of the author's mentor, Mary Hulst, was erroneously omitted. Kerux regrets the error.