Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - A Black Scholar in Politically Correct Academia

stevo · 04-15-2005, 06:07 PM

Why doesn't the media pick up on this stuff? With everything that went on with that professor from colorado why is there no mention of this tenured professor in the mainstream television media?

Quote:

The Strange Case of Professor Cobbs
A Black Scholar in Politically Correct Academia
By Dr. Carey Stronach

Dr. Jean R. Cobbs, tenured professor of sociology and social work, is one of the most eminent scholars on the campus of Virginia State University (VSU). A faculty member since 1971, a program director for 24 years, and department chair for 12 years, she earned her baccalaureate degree from Elizabeth City State University (NC), her master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her doctorate from the College of William and Mary.

Dr. Cobbs, after joining the VSU faculty in 1971, advanced through the ranks to tenured full professor. She founded the Social Work Program at VSU, got it accredited (accrediting agency: Council on Social Work Education), and kept it accredited throughout the 24 years she directed the program. She also founded the VSU chapter of the Alpha Delta Mu social work honor society, which flourished under her advisement. And she was successful in soliciting grants for her department.

But Dr. Cobbs is a bit different from many VSU faculty, not to mention most in the sociology and social work disciplines. That is, she is a Republican and an objective scholar who takes a dim view of the political correctness scourge, and of those who use the classroom to indoctrinate students into radical (Marxist/black separatist) politics. For this she should be applauded, but instead, it has been the undoing of her career at VSU.

It should be noted that Dr. Cobbs received very high performance ratings from 1971 to 1993. Indeed, the militant/Marxist/separatist element of the faculty of the social sciences disliked her, but with fair-minded deans, provosts and presidents, they were unable to retaliate against her in an effective manner.

Enter Mr. Eddie N. Moore, Jr., who was appointed president of VSU in 1993 by a board of visitors chosen and coerced by then Governor L. Douglas Wilder. This same board had previously fired Dr. Wesley C. McClure, president of VSU from 1988 to 1992, a relatively apolitical mathematician with Republican leanings.

Mr. Moore has no earned doctorate, and had no experience in academia (which quickly became obvious). He is a CPA who had been state treasurer under Wilder, and is so proud of his combined SAT score of 920 that he put it on his automobile license tags.

Although the details are murky, it has become obvious that some sort of deal was cut between Mr. Moore and the militant/Marxist/separatist element of the faculty. The evidence is circumstantial but extensive. Almost immediately upon Mr. Moore's arrival, foreign-born faculty, conservative and Republican faculty and staff, and faculty who were heavily engaged in research began to have difficulties with the VSU administration.

For example, Dr. Emmanuel Amobi, a Nigerian-born conservative Republican and an eminent accounting professor, was turned down for tenure and fired (the dean who had strongly recommended him for tenure before Moore's arrival wrote a second contradictory letter that was highly critical of Amobi, after Moore arrived). Dr. Amobi sued the university and received an out-of-court settlement. Two tenured directors of major externally funded programs, Dr. Charles Whyte (an active Republican originally from Jamaica) and Dr. Fathy Saleh (a Republican originally from Egypt) had their programs (that were bringing millions of outside dollars into VSU) taken away from them.

The administration attempted to transfer control of these programs to African-American faculty, but did not succeed and the funding was subsequently lost. Dr. Godwin Mbagwu (a chemistry professor originally from Nigeria) had a grant taken away from him and was given low performance ratings (in sharp contrast to the treatment previously accorded him). Whyte left VSU and joined the US AID. Saleh and Mbagwu sued the university; the judgment against the University in their case is approximately $1.7 million.

Mr. Bernard Jones, an accountant on the university's fiscal staff, and a conservative Republican former policeman, was summarily fired for no apparent reason. Mr. Thomas W. Darby (then chairman of the Republican Black Caucus of Virginia), the VSU purchasing agent, and his wife Eileen (a secretary at VSU) were summarily fired also, but they went to court and were reinstated. Dr. Shaukat Siddiqi (originally from Pakistan, and an active Republican) was removed as chair of the life sciences department and was replaced with the most junior member of the departmental faculty (the only African-American), who immediately destroyed the herbarium that Siddiqi had been assembling for the previous twenty years. Siddiqi sued and received an out-of-court settlement.

Several white faculty were fired from the business school faculty, but this observer has little direct information about these cases. Also, numerous acts of petty harassment occurred which, for reasons of space, cannot be described here.

As reprehensible as all these actions are, they pale before the treatment accorded Dr. Jean Cobbs. A full narrative would fill a short book, but the main points are as follows:

* In 1994, when Dr. Cobbs was working on the reaccreditation study for the Social Work program, the provost ordered the secretaries who would normally type the study, not to provide typing support to Dr. Cobbs. Cobbs wound up paying a typist out of her own pocket. When she sent the typed report to the printers for duplication the University administration canceled the purchase order. Also, the VSU administration refused to pay Dr. Cobbs overtime for her work on the self-study report.
* In the summer of 1994, Dr. Cobbs was forced out of the sociology department chairmanship and was hit with a 25% reduction in salary.
* In November 1995, one month after riding on the Republican float in the VSU homecoming parade (the only African-American to do so), Dr. Cobbs was fired from the position of director of the social work program.
* Beginning in 1994, Dr. Cobbs began receiving "Unsatisfactory" performance ratings (as opposed to the "Outstanding" ratings she had received previously). She was placed in post-tenure review, under which she could have been dismissed. However, the post-tenure review committee ruled unanimously in her favor, but the VSU administration never acknowledged that finding.
* In April 1996, Dr. Cobbs (a tenured full professor) was given a terminal contract by the VSU administration. A close friend in the community, (ironically, the president of the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans), who knows former Governor George Allen well, contacted then-Governor Allen and, working through the Attorney General's office, forced the VSU administration to replace the terminal contract with one respecting her tenured status.
* In a secret meeting held without Dr. Cobbs' knowledge, the VSU administration banned the Alpha Delta Mu social work honor society from the campus. (Dr. Cobbs founded and served as faculty adviser to this chapter.) No reason has ever been given for this action.
* On March 2, 1997, one of the militant separatist faculty members (a large man almost twice Dr. Cobbs' size) physically assaulted her in the campus dining hall. No disciplinary action has ever been taken against her assailant.
* Dr. Cobbs has systematically been denied fair cost-of-living raises since 1994. In 1998 she received zero salary increase. In the other years since 1994 she has received a 1.2% increase or less. The university averages were about 5% for each year.
* Dr. Cobbs has been called "crazy" and "a traitor to her race" by militant faculty, and has been told to "watch your politics" by the chair of another department a few days after she attended a reception for Oliver North.
* Many acts of petty harassment have been committed against Dr. Cobbs. Her department chair refused to provide her with a computer (from grant money brought to VSU by Dr. Cobbs - computers were provided to every other faculty member in the department except Dr. Cobbs), then even refused to provide a new ribbon for the printer on her old computer, has given her the worst teaching schedule in the department (in the least desirable classrooms on campus), refused to order desk copies of textbooks for her classes, and refused to process routine travel requests for Dr. Cobbs.
* Under the new chair and social work director, the social work program lost the accreditation that Dr. Cobbs originally obtained and kept for 24 years. No action has been taken against these persons for loss of the accreditation.
* The University Office of Business and Finance has failed to reimburse her $500 for a course her daughter signed up for but dropped less than an hour later after her daughter's faculty adviser (from Old Dominion University) advised her that it was not the proper course to take.

What has Dr. Cobbs done to deserve all this? First, she is a conservative Republican who has been active in the Republican party. She put Republican signs in her front yard. She refused to donate $1,000 to L. Douglas Wilder's campaign, as she was asked to do so by a left-wing colleague. When department chair, she turned down an extremely militant social work faculty member for tenure, based upon unsatisfactory work performance and a failure to complete the doctorate within an expected time frame. And when serving as chair of the search committee for a new provost in 1992, she voted against another extremely militant faculty member who had applied. In this latter case the applicant confronted Dr. Cobbs and called her a "nigger".

There are numerous other examples of mismanagement by the Moore administration that do not involve political persecution, discrimination and retaliation. These include loss of accreditation of several programs (other than Social Work) , the use of a slush fund created from unreturned student dormitory security deposits to supplement the president's salary, purchase of appliances for the president's residence that were made in violation of state purchasing policies and procedures, and provision of a lucrative consulting contract to the provost's daughter after said daughter had been convicted of theft.

An American Dreyfus affair? Indeed, it is fair to posit that the VSU militants and cowardly administrators would ship Dr. Cobbs to Devil's Island if it were in their power to do so.

In a syndicated column about the Cobbs case, "Virginia State University Tyranny," Professor Walter Williams asks the hypothetical question, "Wouldn't Virginia's Governor's office and Office of the Attorney General, the Virginia Council of Higher Education and the commonwealth's House of Delegates know what's going on at Virginia State University?"

And he answers it: "I guarantee that they all do, but they're timid and fearful of being labeled as racists if they take correction action. It might be worse than that. It could be that they hold a racist double standard, whereby predominantly black universities, their administrators and their faculty are exempted from the academic standards of conduct and decency to which predominantly white universities are held."

-- Carey Stronach is a professor of physics at Virginia State University and board member of the Virginia Association of Scholars, an affiliate of the National Association of Scholars, an organization that works to preserve academic freedom. See also Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

http://www.issues-views.com/index.ph...5/article/1082

Its because the elite media picks and chooses their stories and when one goes against their views they don't cover it. But once the story breaks there are still going to be people defending the university president's actions and rationalizing what happened because in their minds it is Dr. Cobbs views that are really whats wrong.