Observer the
April 19, 2018 VOLUME XXXV, ISSUE 6
www.fordhamobserver.com
Prof. Suspended; Uni. Investigates By COLIN SHEELEY News Editor
On Friday, April 6 Associate Philosophy Professor William Jaworski was given notice of his suspension pending a formal university investigation, according to Assistant Vice President for Communications Bob Howe. Members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee confirmed that before the decision was reached, they were consulted that day on the matter in accordance with university statutes, which states that the President of the university “may suspend a member of the instructional staff with pay...only if the President determines that serious and immediate harm to such person or others, or to the University, is threatened.” A department-wide meeting was also held that week between philosophy professors and the Provost Stephen J. Freedman, according to two people familiar with the gathering. While the nature of the investigation remains confidential to general members of the university community, greater details of Jaworski’s past at Fordham, that include previous harassment allegations, have come to light less than two weeks after his suspension. That following Monday, April 9, Stephen R. Grimm, the Philosophy department chairperson, informed Jaworski’s three classes of the investigation and his suspension. Accompanied by Associate Dean of the School of Professional & Continuing Studies Cira Vernazza to his final evening “AI, Sci-Fi and Human Value” class, Grimm spoke on several of the details surrounding the formal review, which were recorded in a transcript obtained by the Observer. In the conversation, Grimm mentioned that Jaworski has been the subject of multiple Title IX investigation claims in the past but refused to say if his current suspension was in anyway related to a Title IX investigation or the university’s sexual misconduct policies. The Observer has reached out to Jaworski for comment and is awaiting his response. When pressed for information by one of the students in the class, Grimm said that the terms of Jaworski’s suspension ran “at least
By ANDREW BEECHER Asst. Photo Editor
ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF CARLA DE MIRANDA
Assistant VP of Communications Bob Howe refused to provide the Observer with a photo of William Jaworski.
through the end of the fall semester.” Referring to Fordham’s investigative procedure, Grimm stated, “I think that they’ve always taken every allegation very seriously, and sometimes there’s been strong evidence,” adding “but sometimes the evidence has just been inconclusive.” Reports and concerns of Jawor-
ski’s alleged behavior have dated back as far as 15 years, according to students and alumni who spoke to The Observer on background. Andrew Clark, vice president of the Faculty Senate and chairperson of the French and Comparative Literature department, said in an email to the Observer that four years ago, he had reported a claim involving Jaworski to the Title IX
office. “When I reported the Title IX case, the Title IX coordinator spoke with my advisee and they launched an investigation,” Clark said. “It is my understanding that there were other complaints being investigated at the time, or that had been recently investigated, as see JAWORSKI INVESTIGATION pg. 2
High School Poetry Featured at Poets Out Loud By JEFFREY UMBRELL Features Editor
The April 11 Poets Out Loud (POL) reading, held in the Lowenstein 12th floor lounge, was unique in two ways; it not only featured the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess, but also that of students from POL’s high school outreach program. Jess read selections from his book “Olio,” which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Aided by a multimedia presentation, he exhibited his extraordinary ability to push the limits of form, space and meter in his work. He read a series of five “syncopated sonnets” about the McCoy sisters, twins who were conjoined at the hips, which can be read horizontally, vertically, forwards and backwards. By connecting matching lines in each of the poems, all five
SJP Lives On as Study Group
can be arranged in a rough “X” shape, which mirrors that of the sisters’ bodies (Jess showed this process via PowerPoint slides). Students involved with the outreach program typically read their work at the final event of the year. POL works with high schools across the city, often those in underserved communities, to help students foster “an interest in reading, writing and listening to poetry,” according to their website’s mission statement. Heather Dubrow, English professor at Fordham University and director of POL, has been leading the outreach program for nine years. She expressed at the reading her great “respect and gratitude” for the students and teachers involved and said that the teachers are “extraordinary men and women who volunteer so much time and energy to the outreach.” She stressed that they
LENA ROSE/THE OBSERVER
Heather Dubrow, director of POL, organizes the outreach program.
take the time to bring their students to the readings “in addition to their many other responsibilities.”
The schools present at the April 11 reading included Bronx Early College Academy, the School For Excellence and the East Side Community High School. Attendance by school varies at each reading, but, as students were sharing their own work, this reading had an especially strong turnout. Amy Feinstein, an English teacher at the School For Excellence, has been working with POL for the past four years. She said she met Dubrow while she was a student at the University of Wisconsin, where Dubrow used to teach. Later, after Feinsten had started teaching high school here in New York, she said, “I actually happened to bump into her [Dubrow] in a museum … and she told me about this program, and she was hoping we could get my see POETS pg. 12
As the court battle for the formation of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Fordham continues to wage downtown at Manhattan Civil Courthouse, the students behind it are not staying idle. Led by Sofia Dadap, FCLC ’18, members of the would-be club have been organizing Palestine-focused events around campus all semester. In Dec. 2016, Dean of Students Keith Eldredge vetoed the United Student Government’s unanimous approval of SJP. Four months later, SJP filed a lawsuit seeking to compel Fordham to approve SJP for official club status. Since then, SJP has become representative of something much bigger: free speech at Fordham. “I feel complicated about SJP becoming a symbol of free speech at Fordham because... it has brought attention to the fact that speech about Palestine is often the exception to protected speech,” Dadap said. She continued, “On the other hand, I am frustrated that people focus on the institutional policies of Fordham because our main objective was always to bring awareness to Palestinian liberation struggles.” Operating under the name “Palestine Study Group,” they have been organizing events such as book readings and movie screenings open for anyone to attend. Themes of their most recent reading events have included “Queer Settler Colonialism in Canada and Israel” and “Daily Life Under Occupation.” Their March 15 event, “From Palestine to Ferguson,” focused specifically on the relationship between the brutality of the police in the United States and the Israeli military’s in Palestine. The group read see SJP STUDY GROUP pg. 2
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