Petition looks to seal spot for professor
When Urooj Abbas realized her favorite professor would not be returning next semester, she took immediate action to make sure his release would not go unchallenged.
Abbas, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, started a petition last month to keep part-time lecturer Peter Valenti at the University.
"I had his classes in the fall semester last year, and I noticed he was only teaching one class," Abbas said. "This was [a sign] for me that they were phasing him out of the system as a teacher."
In the first seven hours of the online petition, more than 100 people from around the academic world signed it.
"We were very pleased with the first day," said Sidra Sattar, a School of Arts and Sciences junior. "It was absolutely amazing."
Valenti, who started teaching at the University in 2008, said he was surprised to hear about the petition from a colleague in the history department.
"One of the faculty members brought the petition to my attention [and] said ‘Are you aware of this?' and I said I wasn't," Valenti said. "So, that was very surprising."
Rudolph Bell, a professor at the University for more than 40 years, said Valenti's situation is not unusual.
"It routinely happens that the wishes of students are not given a high enough priority," Bell said. "The students pay a lot of tuition so they should be able to get access to these classes."
Although both Abbas and Sattar were upset after finding out about their professor's departure, Valenti was never under the impression he would be kept on board.
The department hired him as a part-time lecturer to replace Toby Jones, a professor in the history department, who left the University to conduct a research project at Princeton University, he said.
"They needed someone to continue teaching Middle Eastern study classes. I was completely aware that I would only be here for two years as a replacement for Professor Jones," Valenti said. "I knew from the get-go that May 2010 would probably be, in all likelihood, my last time here."
Valenti also made a point of saying the budget was only a factor in his situation when the department tried to keep him on staff.
"The only connection to the budget is if they will be able to keep me on longer, beyond the two years," he said. "If the budget doesn't open up full-time positions, there is only so long I can stay here."
Valenti said, when he realized the department would not be able to keep him on staff, he looked elsewhere. This proved to be unsuccessful.
"I know what the job market is like," he said. "The job market's been so terrible that there's really no possibility I'd get offers anywhere else."
Valenti said, although he does not agree with many of the department's priorities, he understands it is the way most school systems work.
"This is why you have administrators that have to make difficult decisions. I don't agree with all the decisions they make, but obviously we're in a budget crunch," he said. "We know humanities aren't the big money-makers for the University so more money will go to science and so forth."
Vice Chair of the history department Jennifer Jones said the department would love to keep Valenti on as a full-time professor. But it just did not work out that way.
"We were absolutely delighted to hire Peter, but it was always just as a temporary measure for replacing Toby Jones' courses," she said. "We actually fully expected that he would get a tenure tract from another university. Because of the terrible job market, he didn't."
Sattar said losing a professor like Valenti is not acceptable, especially because of his teaching style.
"He has charisma and the intelligence, and knowledge to go along with it, and that's a perfect blend for a professor," she said. "I always say passion is contagious and, when a professor is very passionate about something, the students do feel it."
Valenti does not develop a student following because of a laid-back grading style or reduced workload. In fact, he said some of his classes are quite demanding.
"I never make things easy or simple. I am always complicating things. I want students to critically evaluate historical narratives in textbooks [and] my narratives in class," he said. "Don't just accept it — push it, prod it, compare and contrast it — I encourage that all the time."
Sattar said the students should have a voice in whether excellent professors like Valenti are kept on or not.
"Budget cuts will happen regardless of who is in office, but students should be questioned about what they want to be cut," she said. "Evaluations should definitely be on the table of which professor should be cut or not."
Abbas made a similar comment, saying her favorite professor should not be left out of the University.
"I just felt like it was a little ridiculous they would do that when he is a great professor," she said. "Students should have a say in who gets to stay or go."
Valenti, although flattered by the effort of the petition and Abbas, said he did not want the grassroots movement to be seen as a conflict of interest.
"I didn't want that impression to remain among people," he said. "That's why I've definitely tried to keep my distance."
Jones said a similar situation happened to her as an undergraduate, when one of her favorite professors was denied tenure.
"We were so distraught, we had black armbands and we signed a petition. I realize now, in hindsight, 30 years later, that I didn't understand anything about the whole process and the hierarchy," she said. "All I knew is that a professor we really loved was denied tenure."
