Towson campus reacts to
TYLER WALDMAN
Associate Arts Editor
One word cost Allen Zaruba his teaching M
career at Towson University.
adjunct firing
Do you feel that the firing of
lien Zaruba was the right thing to do?
NOT SURE
8%
Source:
TheTowerlighl.com
online poll, as of
Wednesday evening.
Number of votes: 644
Zaruba, a professional artist and
adjunct art professor who has taught
at the University for 12 years, was
fired last Thursday after being report¬
ed to the provost’s office for using a
racial slur in class.
Zaruba was lecturing in his Visual
Concepts class last Monday. The
class was discussing a textbook he
called "very politically incorrect,"
"Themes of Contemporary Art” by
lean Robertson and Craig McDaniel.
While reviewing a chapter about iden¬
tity and the body Zaruba referred to
himself as "a nigger on the corporate
plantation."
As soon as the words came out of
his mouth, Zaruba said, he regretted
them. He contends, however, that
the phrase was not directed at any¬
one other than himself and was not
meant to be racially offensive.
"I am not a racist. I never have
been. I’ve been raised overseas and in
other cultures. It just absolutely kills
me,” he said in an interview Sunday,
later adding that he serves in the pris¬
on ministry, teaches Sunday school
and that his stepfather was a black
man and he "loved him dearly."
Maria Bernier, a sophomore stu¬
dio art major who was in the class,
spoke highly of Zaruba and said the
remark was not out of character for
the professor, and was not intended
or interpreted by much of the class as
discriminatory.
"He's very honest in his descrip¬
tions, and sometimes when he
describes things, he uses words that
I guess a lot of people would find ...
offensive," she said.
Similar language had been used
before, according to Bernier.
"He used the word to illustrate
a point. He wasn’t trying to offend
anyone. And obviously ... we were
understanding. And going into our
class, you kind of should expect some
level of shock and, you know, in your
face [content]," she said.
At a Student Government
Association-sponsored study break
event Wednesday afternoon, provost
Marcia Welsh disputed Zaruba’s and
Bernier’s accounts. She said the racial
slur was made at the beginning of
class and was unrelated to the course
of discussion.
Following last Monday’s incident, a
student, who is at this point remain¬
ing anonymous, and the student’s
parents complained to the provost’s
office. After internal deliberations,
none of which included Zaruba, he
was fired by phone last Thursday
night by Stuart Stein, interim chair of
the art department.
When asked Wednesday, Welsh
would not elaborate on the specifics
of the conversations that took place,
nor would she confirm whether or
not similar incidents with Zaruba had
happened in the past.
"I have not had anything in writing.
Needless to say, I am in quite deep
shock," Zaruba said.
According to documents from the
provost’s budget office, the standard
contract offered to part-time faculty
members stipulates that they serve
"at the pleasure of the University’s
president" and allows the University
to dismiss part-time instructors for
"any legal reason."
An official statement released
Wednesday from the provost’s office
said the former professor’s remarks
were "not part of the academic dis¬
cussion of his classroom” and the
decision to fire Zaruba was reached
in consultation with department offi¬
cials.
“Towson University strongly sup¬
ports and upholds academic freedom
in the classroom and across our learn¬
ing community; however, such patent¬
ly offensive language on the part of
University employees will not be toler¬
ated and does not reflect our value
system," the statement said.
In response to a question at the
study break, Welsh later added that
the decision to dismiss Zaruba was
based on a one-time event and not a
pattern of similar remarks.
Zaruba is an established artist, rec¬
ognized locally and internationally. He
spent 10 years as an illustrator for the
U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight squad,
according to an online biography.
During the 2003-2004 academic year,
he was a Fulbright scholar working in
South Korea. This semester at Towson,
Zaruba had been teaching two other
classes, one section of 3D Process and
one section of Sculpture I.
A faculty member who spoke on the
condition of anonymity said Tuesday
he felt the administrators "did what
they had to do" and that the former
professor had accepted what had hap¬
pened.
"I don’t think they had any other
choice. I think that the administration
feels as bad about this as anybody,"
the source said. "I think nobody feels
good about this ... This is an ugly, bad
situation which I am sure the provost
and the administration feels as bad
about as anybody. And I think that it
was probably a choice they couldn't
avoid making. And A1 knows that.”
The source said they were "abso¬
lutely and totally certain that there isn’t
a racist bone in [Zaruba’s] body."
See FIRED, page 8