Katie Demkiw-Orman, ’04, considers Dr. Marice Rose of the art history department to be one of her favorite professors at Fairfield University.
“She’s undoubtedly one of the best teachers I’ve had at Fairfield,” said Demkiw-Orman. “She’s influenced many students to want to become art history majors.”
Due to a one-year contract that has not been renewed because of financial reasons, however, Rose will not be returning back to Fairfield next year.
Rose, along with a number of other professors, was part of a group of faculty that were hired in response to “the large class of juniors,” said Academic Vice President Orin Grossman. A number of professors were therefore hired with the understanding that their contract would be for one year only without the expectation of renewal.
Rose, however, has been here for several years and many students were shocked to hear that she would not be coming back next year, especially because Rose is a recent alumna of Fairfield.
“It’s just sad that she’s an alumna and she’s getting booted,” said Demkiw-Orman. “This will definitely affect the art history department.”
Jen Tumsuden, ’04, an art history major, agreed.
“Even for people who aren’t art history majors, she [Rose] finds a way to make it interesting,” said Tumsuden. “It’s really an inspiration. And for us majors, it’s great that she graduated from Fairfield and is now teaching and working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s encouraging to see how we can use our degrees in the future.”
According to Grossman, only 200 tenure tracts exist at Fairfield, meaning that only 200 professors at Fairfield are guaranteed life employment. A tough economic time was Grossman’s main reason behind the decision not to renew Rose’s contract.
Grossman went on to say that Rose’s leaving was “unfortunate,” but also that this is a yearly process and that the university usually has around eight to ten full-time faculty on non-tenure contracts.
For Alison Kraus, ’03, an art history major, however, Rose’s presence was worth much more than any type of monetary value.
“She’s written me a number of recommendations and has always been so helpful, bright, intelligent and enthusiastic,” said Kraus. “She’s young and energetic and brings her own area of expertise to the department.”
Tumsuden said that Rose’s expert knowledge of the Medieval era in art history will especially be missed.
“That chunk in time will be missing,” said Tumsuden. “It’s not like they’ll ever be able to replace her.”
Kim Reidy contributed to this report.
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