National professors' union investigating Linfield University firing

McMinnville -- The American Association of University Professors announced Tuesday that it is launching an investigation into Linfield University’s dismissal of a tenured professor.

Linfield University fired professor and Shakespeare scholar Daniel Pollack-Pelzner late last month due to “serious breaches” of his “duty to the institution,” according to the university. In March, Pollack-Pelzner posted on social media about past allegations of sexual misconduct and antisemitism involving university leaders, including current university president Miles Davis.

The AAUP initially reached out to Linfield President Davis on April 30, a few days after Pollack-Pelzner was fired.

In that letter, the Director of AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance, Gregory Scholtz, wrote that dismissing a tenured professor without a pre-termination hearing, as in Pollack-Pelzner’s case, is in violation of principles supported by faculties and higher education institutions nationwide.

Read more: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/05/18/oregon-linfield-university-investigation-professor/