Professor of Elementary Education Alice McIntyre has been a member of Fairfield University’s faculty since 1996, but this May, McIntyre will no longer be employed by Fairfield University.
In Spring of 2001, Fairfield University denied McIntyre tenure and informed her that the 2001/2002 school year would be her last at the university. Among the many who were confused and outraged by the termination of McIntyre were her students. 22 of McIntyre’s students came forward and wrote and signed a petition asking that the university “retain Dr. McIntyre in her position at Fairfield University.” Among the many who received the petition was Mary Dillon Reynolds, a member of the Board of Trustees, who in turn sent the petition to The Mirror.
McIntyre believes her termination was unjust, in response to her denial of tenure, McIntyre is currently in the process of filing a lawsuit against Fairfield University. McIntyre is a professor in the Graduate Education Program where she has been praised by her students as “a professor who has empowered us as students to stand up for what we believe in.” She has numerous published works and many feel she has excelled in her commitment to community service and seemingly exemplifies what it means to be an effective professor.
McIntyre believes that she has fulfilled and exceeded the guidelines set for her employment in 1996. “My lawyers and I are convinced that the material we have received regarding the tenure process establishes, without a doubt, our claim of retaliation for the ways in which I implemented the ideas that I was hired to teach,” she said. (See “The road to tenure” for more information about how tenure is earned.)
McIntyre acknowledges that she focuses on difficult issues in the classroom. The concentration of McIntyre’s curriculum is multicultural education and the study of whiteness.
“This is what I was hired to teach, these are the issues I presented in my interview six years ago,” she said.
Few faculty members were willing to go on record about the termination of McIntyre. King Dykeman, an associate professor who received tenure in the early 70s, spoke about the McIntyre situation. “I can’t understand why they would hire someone whose book is entitled ‘Making Meaning of Whiteness,’ whose field of study is the relationship between the white culture of teachers versus black students, and yet they weren’t able to tolerate her independent stature,” he said.
While McIntyre may embody the ideals of a professor on paper, it has been questioned whether or not she is collegial. Dykeman, a friend and colleague, admits McIntyre is not interested in pleasing people, saying, “Tenure is created to protect professors’ employment from the critique and dislike of their associates. Alice needed tenure when she was born.”
Academic Vice President Orin Grossman, head of the Rank and Tenure Committee, was asked to comment on the rejection of McIntyre’s tenure request. He declined.
McIntyre’s students want an answer. Graduate student Kara Camp was discouraged that the university would haphazardly dismiss a professor who brings not only knowledge into the classroom, but a passion to engage her students to become better teachers. For Camp, “Dr. McIntyre was the reason I came to Fairfield.”
Denise Hubbard, a mother and part-time student who studies under McIntyre, is confused as to how she could be dismissed, saying, “Dr. McIntyre’s mantra is looking after marginalized people, isn’t that part of a Jesuit school’s identity?”
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