Give Charfauros More Time

To the Editors:

Last week’s Review reported that Oberlin College had agreed to give Professor Antoinette Charfauros McDaniel in the Sociology Department a few more months to complete her doctorate. It made that decision based upon evidence that Professor Charfauros had been its number one candidate for the job in the first place and that she had during her probationary years done everything expected of her, except finish her Ph.D. on time.
In large part because Professor Charfauros devoted far more time nurturing, mentoring and supporting her students, not just her female students but all of them, and because she became unbelievably caught up in reaching out to the Asian American community, she did not consecrate sufficient time to completing the doctorate by the deadline. She sought another extension from the College. The Review reports that the College’s position is that it wants someone about a year from now in September 2002 with the doctorate degree; consequently, it took an action that will terminate Professor Charfauros’s tenure as a teacher at Oberlin in June 2002. However, Professor Charfauros will have easily completed the degree by September 2002; the rub is that she missed the College’s deadline just recently.
If the College now knows for sure that Professor Charfauros will have the degree when the new school year begins, it should not release her on the technicality of her having missed a deadline a full year away from the actual date the degree is needed, September 2002. The College has abundant evidence of the worthiness of Professor Charfauros, which was the sole basis of its granting an extension in the first place. If Professor Charfauros' performance at that point had not been clearly exemplary, the College never would have granted her an extension. The College doesn’t need to spend thousands of dollars engaged in a long search for a new teacher who may or may not have a Ph.D. by September 2002.
I barely know Professor Charfauros professionally or personally; she did not ask me to write on her behalf. But I do know all the people who voted to give her an extension the first time, and I know the next group who voted not to give her any more time. And I respect all of them for technically being fair to Professor Charfauros and for trying to make sure that our students are taught by the absolutely best professors.
Unless the College forgives Professor Charfauros for missing that deadline, she may never get to become one of the best professors at Oberlin. In all of this, you and I only need to know that if the College is today sure that Professor Charfauros will have the degree by September 2002, then for all the reasons that it gave her an extension the first time and hired her in the first instance, it should reconsider its action and welcome her to continue her impressive and dedicated services to our students.

–Booker C. Peek
African American Studies Department