American Historical Association Expresses Concerns About UE Realignment Plan 

American Historical Association Expresses Concerns About UE Realignment Plan

 by Daniel Byrne, Secretary-Treasurer UE AAUP 

Thursday, January 29, 2021 

Evansville— 1/29/21 — On January 26th, Jacqueline Jones, the President of the American Historical Association (AHA), and James Grossman, Executive Director of the AHA, sent a letter to the President of the University of Evansville (UE), Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz, the Chair of the UE Board of Trustees, Linda White, and UE’s Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Michael Austin, outlining their “grave concern” about UE’s ongoing realignment process. The AHA is America’s largest and most prominent organization of professional historians. Writing on behalf of the AHA, Jones and Grossman observe that the current draft academic realignment plan is an “ill-considered plan” that “not only diminishes the quality of a University of Evansville degree; it also identifies the university with employment practices that have no place in American higher education.” 

Jones and Grossman open their letter by noting that UE is proposing to terminate two tenured history professors and remove the history major. They urge “the university to consider the educational and community impacts of this short-sighted plan for realignment, which will serve to weaken the preparation of” the university’s students “for the global citizenship imperative to economic and civic accomplishment, as well as the lifelong learning essential to professional success.” The letter also points out that “cutting a core liberal arts degree like history is an especially odd move” at this time. “Civic leaders from all corners of the political landscape” have recently “lamented the level of historical knowledge of American citizens.” Furthermore, there is presently “overwhelming evidence that shows employers seek the kind of skills a history degree can provide.” 

The AHA’s letter goes on to say that the fact that the university is seeking to terminate tenured professors “without adhering to its own contractual Faculty Handbook and in apparent violation of American Association of University Professors guidelines, not to mention generally accepted ethical guidelines” is “an especially striking embarrassment for an institution whose stated values emphasize ‘a culture of trust.’” The plan proposed by President Pietruszkiewicz, they continue, “will have serious and deleterious consequences for the practice of history and hence the quality of undergraduate education at the University of Evansville.” 

We, the UE AAUP chapter, thank Jacqueline Jones, James Grossman, and the staff of the AHA for their work in putting together this forceful and necessary letter. It accurately captures the university’s violations of “generally accepted ethical guidelines” and clearly delineates some of the consequences 

that would result from the implementation of the President’s draft academic realignment plan. We welcome the letter’s call for President Pietruszkiewicz, Ms White, and Dr. Austin to rethink their “hasty initial inclinations” and to consider that “what might be suggested as a temporary solution to an immediate crisis often becomes a long-term problem.” 

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