School Faces Censure on Denial of Feminist’s Tenure

The University of Judaism’s denial of tenure to a feminist teacher of Hebrew literature violated principles of academic freedom, according to a committee of the American Assn. of University Professors. As a result, the Los Angeles school is likely to be formally censured later this week at the organization’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., association officials said.

The university, which has 200 full-time students and is associated with the Conservative wing of Judaism, denied the allegations.

A censure carries no penalties other than possible damage to a school’s reputation, but is rare, according to association officials. The University of Judaism may be added to the 47 schools from across the country on the censured list, some of them on it for more than 20 years. Sonoma State University, the only California school now under the association’s censure, has been on the list for five years because of its handling of faculty layoffs.

The association’s panel on academic freedom sharply criticized the secrecy surrounding the review last year of Marcia Falk, an associate professor since 1984 who was seeking a permanent full professorship. Contrary to association guidelines, Falk was never told the names of the professors who reviewed her writings and teaching record and was never given a proper chance for appeal, the committee’s report said. In addition, it alleged that the school distorted favorable evaluations of Falk’s work from outside scholars.

The report also raised the possibility that Falk, a poet, was denied promotion and dismissed because of her feminist-oriented translations of Hebrew Scripture, but said it had no direct evidence of such a claim. “A university dominated in its academic and non-academic setting by the Conservative Jewish tradition may be perceived as having no place for a professor with the intensity of feminist convictions held by Marcia Falk,” the report stated. The school, founded in 1947, has 35 faculty members, and Falk was reportedly the first woman ever to be considered for tenure.

The allegations were made public Tuesday at a press conference at the school, perched on Mulholland Drive above the San Diego Freeway between Westwood and the San Fernando Valley.

The university’s spokesman, Ron Wolfson, called the association’s claims “distorted and unfair” but declined to discuss the matter in further detail on the advice of the university’s lawyers.

“The University of Judaism is known in the community as a responsible, caring and sensitive institution, and we believe that our friends will understand and appreciate our silence and our frustration,” said the spokesman in a written statement distributed after the press conference.

According to the association’s report, tenure reviewers thought that Falk did too much creative writing and not enough scholarly research and that she wanted to teach courses only in Hebrew literature, and not the grammar class the school also wanted her to teach. The report said she gained a reputation as being difficult in disputes over leaves of absences and the submission of her writings for tenure review.

At the press conference, Falk said her job at the school ends June 30, but she hopes that the association’s action will lead to her permanent return. “It’s heartbreaking to me,” she said of her dismissal. “I love my work.”

In a telephone interview from Washington, the association’s associate general secretary, Jordan Kurland, said: “It’s not for us to judge how good a poet or writer someone like Marcia Falk is, although I must say she has impressive credentials in that regard. Our central concern is that use of a wholly anonymous evaluative process, coupled with evidence that references were misrepresented, puts the real reason for denying promotion under very strong suspicion. . . . The way it was handled was repugnant.”

Kurland said the organization, which has about 50,000 members, received complaints about tenure decisions and academic freedom in 1,160 cases last year and that only four of them, including Falk’s, resulted in such a published report.

Censure can be lifted when a school corrects what the organization says is in violation of a code of academic freedom developed in 1940. However, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a trade journal for academia, some universities think the association has no right to involve itself in personnel matters and is usually biased against administrators.