Yesterday, the Board of Trustees at Seabury voted on three decisions:
1. They voted unanimously to award me promotion to Associate Professor and tenure.
2. They voted unanimously to declare financial exigency
3. They voted unanimously to give all faculty one-year’s notice.
I may very well hold the Guinness Book of World Records mark for shortest tenure (according to my account it was 13 min. and 45 sec. from the vote on my tenure until the decision to give the faculty notice). Bishop Wendell Gibbs’ remarks moved me. He recognized, even during this very hard day, that this was the first time in Seabury’s history that a person of color AND a non-Episcopalian had been awarded tenure on the SWTS faculty. Bitter-sweet
The other decisions were not new to those of us in the community. There has been a lot of communication “on the block.” Gary Hall and his staff have done a remarkable job of keeping the community informed of important decisions and developments as they have become available.
The faculty here has been aware of this decision for a while now, but it did not make the actual passing of the resolution any easier. Feelings are mixed as one would expect; but I don’t think that this caught anyone by surprise, at least for those of us who are on the block. I realize that many out there will find it difficult to understand these decisions, and trust me, I have wrestled with them myself for quite a while. I will post more on this later if I have the energy. For now, here is the official announcement.
Congratulations and prayers, my friend. Bittersweet indeed.
Posted by: Jane Ellen+ at April 26, 2008 12:15 AM