The East Texas Historical Association (ETHA) is deeply concerned about the state of shared governance, free speech, freedom of association, academic freedom, and due process for faculty at Collin College, in Collin County, Texas. These principles are bedrocks of higher education, but the president of Collin College, Neil Matkin, has undermined each of these ideals. Unless the actions taken by Dr. Matkin, including the unfair and unwarranted dismissals since January 2021 of three members of the Collin College faculty (History Professor Dr. Lora Burnett, Education Professor Dr. Suzanne Jones, and Humanities Professor Audra Heaslip) are reversed, a dangerous precedent will be set for colleges and universities not just across this state, but also the nation, and the quality of American higher education will be imperiled. These professors were fired for a variety of reasons including attempts to open dialogue with the administration about the college’s plan to reopen during the Covdi-19 pandemic. One professor, acting as a private citizen, criticized a political candidate, and was fired for it. Another was fired for her public advocacy of the removal of Confederate monuments, and because she was listed as a local contact person for the Texas Faculty Association. The ETHA holds that none of these dismissals can be justified legally, ethically, or morally. The ETHA also holds that, as mandated in Section 6 of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges’ “Principles of Accreditation,” all policies directly affecting learning at colleges and universities, such as policies formulated in regard to instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21, should be formulated with “a critical mass of qualified fulltime faculty to provide direction of oversight of the academic programs.” Since initial plans for reopening Collin College were formulated with no faculty input and since Professor Heaslip was fired for her leadership in asserting a faculty role in these policies, the ETHA asserts that this standard has not been upheld by Collin College since May of 2020. The ETHA urges Collin College to offer to reinstate Dr. Burnett, Dr. Jones, and Professor Heaslip. Their terminations did not follow established Collin College procedures. The stated reasons for their firings also constitute violations of these professors’ First Amendment rights, including their right to speak freely as private citizens and their right as employees to comment on matters of public concern and on areas within their professional competence. The ETHA also calls upon Collin College to follow its own policies that guarantee the right of employees to “to associate with persons or groups as they so choose, and to participate in political or other kinds of activities,” and to cease actions that represent retaliation against faculty for organizing, joining, or publicizing groups such as the Texas Faculty Association. These activities are also protected by the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and freedom of association. The ETHA also condemns the recorded 2015 comments by Collin College Board of Trustees member Bob Collins, as documented by The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 13, 2021, that the reason tenure is not offered is to enable the college to fire professors because of the
professors’ political beliefs. The ETHA insists that faculty members must not be subjected to ideological litmus tests in order to keep their jobs. The association expects Collin College to commit unequivocally to the right of faculty to teach their subjects without political interference or censorship, and to speak as private citizens on public matters without fear of retaliation. Finally, the ETHA asks that the Collin College board investigate charges that Neil Matkin has made sexist, racist, and anti-Semitic comments during events in which he was discharging his duties as president of the college, and to take appropriate action based on the findings. According to an article posted by The Chronicle of Higher Education this past April 13, Dr. Matkin, at a ceremony honoring longtime Collin College employees, placed a bowl on his head as if were a yarmulke and mocked his Jewish predecessor, at another time “joked” that he couldn’t tell two African American deans apart from each other, and made vulgar references to male genitalia at an event for new faculty. The remarks certainly violate the college’s core values, which include “treating all with dignity and respect.” It is doubtful that such comments and behaviors would be tolerated from a faculty member. Members of the college administration should be treated no differently.