Was This Professor Dangerous?

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A journalist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Emma Pettit, published a piece today about Mike Shively and his suspension. It's fairly thorough and informative and even-handed.

 You can find it HERE

 What she doesn't note is the distressing quality of the final UVU Report on the case. See my previous post for comments on that.

 While the family seeks legal recourse, we're left at UVU to sort out how faculty and administrators can go forward in the context of this case and earlier ones that leave many faculty distrustful and even fearful. 

 For instance:

 One allegation the investigators made against Mike Shively was that he didn't use Canvas. When two of my students wrote on their SRIs this semester that I hadn't used Canvas and they wished I had, I thought about the investigation that noted exactly how few minutes Mike had been on Canvas. Can my pedagogical choice be used against me? I wondered.

 Of course not. But the fact that the question came to mind unsettled me.

 Another allegation was that his course was unreasonably rigorous. Will I need to make my courses less rigorous to protect myself?

 Of course not. But ...

 If I were targeted for any reason, would I expect the protection of due process? Not if Mike Shively's case is any indication. It was months before he learned the names of complainants and details of the complaints.

 A Faculty Senate Committee is writing a new draft of the policy used to suspend and investigate Mike. That should help.

 What will our administrators do to make it clear that we care for one another, that we respect one another, and that we are protected by due policy?

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