First-year instructor reassigned

First-year instructor Tara Holman has been reassigned from teaching any of her philosophy classes and coming on-campus until an investigation is concluded stemming from complaints made by students in her classes.

Beth Rushing, dean of the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, spoke about the current investigation.

“The decision was not made lightly, and we can’t explain why we did it, but (there) was a reason,” Rushing said. “The process isn’t finished, and a decision hasn’t been made.”

Rushing explained that there is a lot of misinformation about the situation.

“She is not suspended; she is reassigned,” Rushing said.

Professors have been found to take over Holman’s former classes, which Rushing considered to be very important.

“We worked very hard to make sure (her classes) have been (covered),” Rushing said.

Olufunke Fontenot, assistant dean and professor of criminal justice as well as the former affirmative action officer for the university, reiterated Rushing’s comments.

“(We have) sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation,” Fontenot said.

Jim Winchester, a professor of philosophy, taught Holman while she was a student at Spelman University and has been assigned to teach three of her classes. He described Holman as a “good student” and said she was a member of the honors program at Spelman.

Winchester and other faculty members received several e-mails from Holman defending herself and her viewpoints, and he, like the rest of the faculty, are waiting for the culmination of the entire situation and investigation.

“I think we all have to wait for the investigation to be over,” Winchester said.

There are many students who disagree with Holman’s reassignment. “Students have been writing us attesting how good (she was),” Rushing said.

Nicole Collier, a sophomore, was one of those students who were happy with Holman’s performance. She was in Holman’s philosophy class, now taught by Winchester.

“She was very entertaining and very unique,” Collier said. “She would definitely try to relate everything (she taught) with things that were happening in her life, so she made class very entertaining, but at the same time, you were learning out of the book.”

Regarding the recent events unraveling with the investigation, Collier said she was unaware of why exactly Holman was reassigned.

“I have no idea what happened, and I kind of miss her and kind of want to go talk to her, but I figure it happened for a reason, and I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” Collier said.

Tara Holman was unable to be reached before the article was submitted for publication.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 18 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry