A faculty committee last week denied the appeal of a tenured engineering professor whom the University has been trying to fire for more than a year.
Debabrata Saha, an electrical and computer engineering professor who arrived at GW in 1986, has been the subject of three suspensions and internal proceedings by the administration to revoke his tenure. Attorneys representing the University say the instructor has engaged in “persistent neglect of professional responsibilities” over the last decade.
Saha, who has been on paid administrative leave since September 2005, appealed the July decision of a faculty panel and a hearing took place last month. The Dispute Resolution Committee unanimously voted to deny the appeal and announced their decision last week, said John Karl Jr., Saha’s attorney.
“Naturally, we’re disappointed with the decision of the committee,” Karl said Sunday. “There was no substantive explanation (in the written decision) that discussed why they decided what they did.”
Tracy Schario, GW’s Media Relations director, said the faculty committee denied the appeal because “they did not see any compelling reason to change or overturn the original decision.”
Though the denial paves the way for Saha’s termination, Saha’s future is still not completely clear, according to the Faculty Code.
“The decision of the relevant committee shall be deemed final and shall be implemented by the University,” the Code states, “unless the Vice President for Academic Affairs (Donald Lehman) determines that there are compelling reasons not to implement the relevant committee’s decision.”
Schario said the case is still being reviewed and there is no timetable for Lehman to make a decision. She added, however, that she doesn’t expect Lehman to overturn the faculty’s unanimous decision.
Lehman did not return an e-mail from The Hatchet as of press time.
Saha’s attorney said he is asking that Lehman recuse himself from the process because of a pending grievance against the senior administrator. “We don’t think he’s objective,” Karl said.
He added that he wants to appeal the case beyond the faculty committee to University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and the Board of Trustees – the highest governing body at GW.
The administration argued – and the hearing panels have unanimously found – that Saha neglected many of his professional duties throughout the past decade. Doug Mishkin, an attorney representing the University, told the appeal panel that Saha attended no faculty meetings, served on no committees, submitted no annual reports or student evaluations, conducted no research and had little communication with his colleagues.
He said Saha was given several “second chances” after suspensions, but the professor would revert back to his neglectful job performance.
“He hasn’t learned anything after 10 years and after umpteen second chances, and that’s why he doesn’t deserve another,” Mishkin said at the hearing. “If you don’t recommend revoking his tenure, you’ll be granting Professor Saha a license not to lift his finger for the rest of his professional life at GW.”
Karl testified before the appeal panel that Saha did not attend faculty meetings because he wanted to distance himself from professors who were part of a faculty dispute in 1996 involving doctoral exams. He said Trachtenberg suggested Saha avoid contact with professors during a meeting in 1996. Trachtenberg declined to comment on the case.
Other defenses against the University’s accusations include that Saha could not serve on a committee because he was never appointed to any; that no superiors ever told him to submit annual reports; and that he never received student evaluation forms to complete. Karl also said the University “skirts” D.C.’s statute of limitation, which he said bars the University from citing instances of professional neglect in the 1990s. Mishkin said this claim has no merit.
The Saha case is the first instance in GW’s 185-year history that tenure revocation has made it this far, according to the decision of the Saha Hearing Panel. Most instances of tenure revocation nationwide never get to this point, as professors usually resign when faced with these charges, experts said.
Saha is suing the University, Lehman and Engineering School Dean Timothy Tong for having University Police officers escort him from a class he was teaching in September 2005. He claims the action was embarrassing and unnecessary.
