Recordpub.com - KSU faculty union objects to new hire Group to file grievance

By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
The Kent State University chapter of the American Association of University Professors, KSU's faculty union, expects to file a grievance today or Friday alleging the university hired a new faculty member in violation of the union contract.
Deborah Smith, associate professor of philosophy and AAUP grievance chairperson, said the AAUP filed an unfair labor practice lawsuit after receiving information that the university planned to hire Vince Quevedo as an associate professor.
The union learned that Quevedo was being offered an appointment in the KSU School of Fashion Design and Merchandising with the promise he would be a tenured professor making $93,000 annually upon his hire. Such an offer violates the union's contract, she said.
The AAUP contacted the fashion school, President Lester Lefton, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robert Frank and Associate Provost Gayle Ormiston with its concerns.
"We told them not to (hire Quevedo), and they did it anyway," Smith said.
An after-hours message seeking comment was left Wednesday with the provost's office.
Quevedo, a former KSU fashion professor, is a member of the faculty in the department of design, housing and merchandising at Oklahoma State University. A graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, he has won numerous awards in fashion design, according to his biography on the Oklahoma State Web site.
Smith said the university ignored a faculty advisory committee's recommendation to not hire Quevedo, in addition to the decision to immediately grant him tenure. Faculty advisory committee votes are not binding on the university.
The faculty advisory body "didn't find that this candidate was a good fit for the school. He had been rejected twice before. The director (of the fashion school) decided she wanted to hire him anyway, over and above the faculty recommendation. Which, sadly, they can do," Smith said.
Exceptions to the "tenure at hire" situation have been made in the past with faculty blessing.
"We're concerned about what (the hiring) says about this new administration's respect for faculty bodies, and how they respect or don't respect our contract. We care very much about faculty advisory bodies, and in the end what's made us most mad is they disrespected our contract," Smith said.
The AAUP is seeking the agreement of the KSU Board of Trustees to rescind the offer of tenure to Quevedo. The union wrote that it will agree he be hired with a three-year probationary period as called for by tenure policy, and also is seeking a letter of apology to fashion faculty from school Director Elizabeth Rhodes and College of the Arts Dean Timothy Chandler.
"It's become clear that this was essentially a done deal before (administrators) even went to the faculty advisory body," Smith said.