Dear Editor,

In the past two months there have been several “letters to the editor” of various LGBT presses from women’s studies faculty and former graduate students at SDSU that grossly misrepresent Professor Pat Washington’s professional record and the circumstances surrounding her tenure denial and termination. We would like to respond to some of those misrepresentations.

Most recently, four women’s studies faculty questioned how they, as lesbians, could possibly be accused of discriminating against Washington, also lesbian. No one denies the lesbian “credentials” of SDSU’s women’s studies department, but a singular focus on those credentials deflects attention from other issues at play in Washington’s tenure denial and termination — namely, the differential treatment accorded her and her professional record. Despite its strong lesbian profile, the department cannot obscure the fact that it held Washington — the only black full-time faculty member in its 30-year history — to vastly higher standards than the white women it granted tenure. Nor can it obscure the fact that it imposed these higher standards on Washington just six months before she was required to submit her tenure portfolio — a product that normally takes six years to develop.

Other letters point to women’s studies’ hiring record to dispute Washington’s claim of discrimination. “Since 1990,” the refrain goes, “the department has conducted five searches for new professors, and all five of those searches resulted in the hiring of women of color, including Washington.” Missing from this glowing account of all those minority hires is the fact that three white women were appointed to tenured or tenure-track positions during this same time frame without having to go through searches. This points to another example of differential treatment on the part of women’s studies — namely, women of color hires were required to compete in national searches, while white women hires were simply given their jobs. Moreover, despite what is depicted as a decade-long “minority hiring frenzy,” Washington’s firing results in the department’s having no full-time Black faculty. Given that Blacks receive proportionately more PhDs than Asians, Latinos and Native Americans, having two Asian and two Latina, but no Black, full-time faculty is itself suspect.

As it played itself out in the women’s studies department, Washington’s bid for tenure was more political than professorial (a sort of taxpayer-financed version of a sorority “rush”), and her tenure denial and termination had more to do with malice than with merit. Although tenure and promotion are supposed to be based solely on teaching effectiveness, professional growth (publications) and service, this clearly did not hold true in Washington’s case. Her service was off the chart. Her teaching scores averaged 4.1 out of a possible 5 (objectively “above average” and well within range of the departmental average of 4.26). Her peer teaching evaluations for the tenure review period uniformly lauded her as an “outstanding” or “excellent” classroom teacher. Tellingly, in her seven years at SDSU, she won eight of the university’s top teaching awards (the next highest award-winner in women’s studies received five awards in 16 years). These are documented, verifiable facts — less scintillating, perhaps, than rumors, innuendoes, and “timely” anecdotal potshots — but infinitely more supportable. Moreover, Washington produced eight refereed (or peer-reviewed) articles from the time of her appointment in 1996 to the time she went up for tenure in 2001 (only two articles were required for tenure and promotion when she was hired). In sharp contrast, the majority of Washington’s similarly situated white colleagues got tenured and promoted to associate professor with only one or two articles each. Publication “quality” is not an issue for Washington either, because, when put to the test, her articles can, and will, match the pre-tenure articles of her colleagues — quality measure for quality measure.

Pat Washington has more than earned tenure and promotion at San Diego State University. We will do whatever it takes, for however long necessary, to make sure that she gets the tenure and promotion she so richly deserves. We will not give up until the racism is exposed and Pat is reinstated.

Sincerely,

Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chair, Pat Washington Support Committee

Jess San Roque, vice-chair, Pat Washington Support Committee

Maggie Allington, publicity chair, Pat Washington Support Committee