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Tenure Dispute at San Jose State Settled
By Cathy Kessel
Cynthia Mahabir, a sociologist of East Indian descent, has reached a settlement with
San Jose State University. Her suit, filed in 1997, charged that she was denied tenure
in the African-American Studies department primarily because she wasn't
"black enough."
Mahabir, who has a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, was
hired part-time at San Jose State in 1987. She was promoted to the tenure track in
1989. In 1994 and 1995, she was unanimously recommended for tenure by three
peer-review committees from African-American Studies, from the College of Social
Work, and a university-wide panel.
However, Sylvia Rodriguez-Andrew, dean of San Jose's social-work college,
recommended that Mahabir not be granted tenure (apparently her rationale for this
decision is unknown). Based on Rodriguez-Andrew's recommendation, the
president of the university, Robert Caret denied tenure. In 1995, Caret justified his
action by saying Mahabir's teaching was inadequate. In 1996, he dropped this
claim and said, " Teaching and service were not a concern based on my review.
My only concern was scholarship." In 1997, he stated that her publications were
sound " good, solid, scholarly documents but nothing earth-shattering, nothing
sublime."
In her suit, Mahabir contended that the head of African-American studies, Cobie
Harris, had made it clear to administrators and others that he thought his department
should not grant tenure to someone other than an African-American. Harris, who is
black, said at a faculty meeting, "Afro-American Studies has no room for an
Indian, anyway."
In addition to having the "wrong" ethnicity, Mahabir may also have had
the "wrong" gender. She was the only full-time woman faculty member of
the African-American studies department. She says that Harris called her
"Honey" at a faculty meeting. "From the beginning of his appointment,
he was extremely hostile and intimidating and demeaning to me," Mahabir said
in 1998. "His overall treatment of me in the department was as though I was not
a full person, a child. It was noncollegial and non-professional."
Mahabir twice filed written complaints with the university about Harris's
behavior, but apparently no action was taken. When she asked about the status of
one complaint a university official told her that Harris's conduct was no more
than simple "rudeness."
In 1996, after her tenure denial, Mahabir left San Jose State. She was a lecturer
in
Laney College's sociology department for two years. She filed her suit in 1997
and reached a settlement in the fall of 1999 but the effects of her suit didn't
stop there, she needed an accountant to help her with the taxes ensuing from the
settlement. After some searching, Mahabir discovered an accountant who was willing
to meet with her on December 23.
The settlement is somewhat unusual $306,980 in back pay and attorney's
fees and approximately $340,000 in benefits. Under the settlement, Mahabir was
reinstated as an Associate Professor on administrative leave through July when she
will resign from San Jose State University. She now intends to proceed with her
career. In her words, the settlement leaves the university with "a terrible stain of
discrimination."
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