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Lafayette College has reaffirmed its decision to deny tenure to Juan Rojo, the assistant professor of Spanish who launched a hunger strike after being denied tenure last month. Rojo, who has since ended his strike, had asked Lafayette’s Board of Trustees to reconsider his case, as three faculty panels endorsed his tenure bid before President Alison Byerly rejected it. Citing some negative comments in student evaluations of Rojo’s teaching, Byerly said she could not concur with the faculty panels because teaching is Lafayette’s most important tenure criterion.
The board once again concurred this week. Its “decision to deny tenure was based on the compelling reason that distinction in teaching, as required by the standard agreed to by the board and set forth in the Faculty Handbook, had not been demonstrated,” Edward W. Ahart, board chair, wrote to Rojo.
The professor said via email that the decision was “not exactly a surprise, but it still stings.” It also underscores important questions about the president’s role in tenure decisions and about the place for student ratings of teachers in personnel decisions, he said.
