Q: Why was Roderick denied tenure?

Does anyone know why one of Duke's only nationally recognized professors has been fired? From our own conversation with Professor Roderick, we know that he has no idea--because he has never been given any specific reasons. This four-time nominee for the Alumni Undergraduate Distinguished Professor Teaching Award has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institute as the best teacher in his field. His "The Philosophy of Human Values" lecture series has been the bestselling videotape in the history of academia. He has been published in five countries. His "Habermas and the Foundations of Critical Theory" is an internationally recognized standard in the field. His work has been studied and reviewed worldwide--India, China, Denmark, Germany, etc., etc.

No one at this university has been willing to debate with Professor Roderick, in public or private, the issue of tenure and research at Duke--either in his own case or the other controversial cases here.

To further their hypocrisy, the University has time and again sent visitors to Professor Roderick's classes as an example of teaching excellence. If he is not fit to teach at Duke, why for eight years did the University continue to use him to entertain prospective freshmen? Either the University was wrong then or they are wrong now.

Professor Roderick has obviously spent way too much time visiting with students, working with the Black Faculty Initiative, organizing protests (such as the one which aided the removal of the union-busting ServiceMaster from campus), working with students for gay and lesbian rights, and being involved in countless other "extracurriculur" activities. Professor Roderick treated Duke students and employees as essential to the University rather than as excess baggage.

Sadly, this letter cannot change anything in this specific case. However, I think we can learn something from this pathetic situation. We always found Professor Roderick's approach to be neither dogmatic nor crude, but radically Socratic. We have written this letter in the hopes that Duke will not sin twice against philosophy.

Katherine Johnson

Trinity '93

Scott Heftler