[A] former University of Vermont economics lecturer says he will appeal to the state Supreme Court a ruling dismissing his grievance over a university decision not to reappoint him.
The Vermont Labor Relations Board ruled last week to uphold UVM’s decision to part ways with self-described “heterodox” economics lecturer John Summa. He had filed a grievance in January 2017 after Arts and Sciences Dean William Falls denied his 2016 request for reappointment and promotion to senior lecturer.
Summa alleged in his grievance that the dean had violated the collective bargaining agreement between the university and United Academics, the faculty union. Summa claimed that Falls relied too heavily on the singular criteria of “faulty” faculty evaluations when assessing his reappointment request.
The lecturer also claimed the university violated his academic freedom by disregarding evidence that the economics department had decided not to recommend him for reappointment him because he was considered a “thorn in the side” in his approach to the subject, according to documents filed in the case.
The labor board held a two-day hearing in February with the university represented by attorneys Ritchie Berger and Kendall Hoescht of the Dinse law firm. Summa represented himself.
UVM argued that the decision to deny reappointment was based on “weaknesses in teaching” observed by fellow faculty members and not on Summa’s critique of “neoclassical economic models,” according to the board’s decision.
“The quality of (Summa’s) teaching drove his colleagues’ decision to not recommend him for reappointment, rather than the subject matter of what he taught,” the board wrote in its wrote April 27 ruling.
Summa, who holds a doctorate in economics and behavioral finance from the New School in New York, joined UVM’s economics department as a lecturer in 2009. During the 2012-2013 school year, the department conducted its four-year review of Summa, which is standard for non-tenured teaching faculty members.
The university approved his reappointment, but noted that peer reviews indicated that Summa was not adequately teaching complex economic concepts to students, according to the board’s decision.
Summa subsequently enrolled in five UVM teacher training courses and received improved scores in student evaluations in areas of concern, according to documents.
After Summa submitted his 2016 request for reappointment and promotion to senior lecturer, the economics department conducted another review of his teaching in preparation for a departmental vote.
This review centered on nine visits to Summa’s classes by department members, including three visits by department chair Sara Solnick. She said in a summary prepared before the department vote that “peer observations this semester reveal a number of serious concerns,” including a lack of student engagement.
The economics faculty voted 10-1 to advise the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences not to reappoint Summa and 11-0 not to promote him.
The Faculty Standards Committee, a panel that advises the dean on matters pertaining to faculty promotion or reappointment, voted 5-0 in favor of reappointing Summa and 5-0 against his promotion to senior lecturer in 2016, according to the VLRB’s decision.
“Although the FSC recognizes concerns raised in the September 2016 peer evaluations, these concerns have to be discounted because there appears to have been no attempt by the department to perform any periodic peer review during the current appointment period until the very end,” wrote the FSC in advisory comments prepared for the dean.
The dean decided that despite Summa’s positive student evaluations and participation in teacher training courses, “… the fact remains that significant weaknesses in your teaching persist.” Summa’s contract was terminated in March 2017.
The Labor Relations Board upheld the dean’s decision, saying that Falls had used multiple criteria to assess Summa’s reappointment request and that the United Academics contract did not require the dean to grant “equal weight” to student and peer evaluations.
“The university is grateful to the VLRB for thoughtfully considering all of the evidence and arriving at what we believe is the appropriate outcome,” said Enrique Corredera, university spokesperson, in an email last week.
Summa said in an interview Friday that he will file an appeal with the Vermont Supreme Court disputing the board’s decision, which he claims “ignores evidence that the board had in its possession.”
The board’s decision cited evidence presented by the university 32 separate times and only once cited an exhibit that he had presented, Summa said. “The VRLB cited one UVM exhibit after another, essentially rewriting almost verbatim the dean’s denial of my grievance as if the two-day hearing never took place,” he said.
Timothy Noonan, executive director of the Vermont Labor Relations Board, declined to comment on the board’s ruling when contacted Friday.
Summa claimed in the interview that he presented evidence during the hearing showing that the department could not prove that he failed to explain to his students the standard economics model “fully and fairly” before critiquing it.
“The factual record is clear,” said Summa. “They misstated or mischaracterized key claims about my teaching.”
Summa cited an email from department chair Sara Solnick as evidence that the department was more concerned with the content of his courses than with his teaching abilities. “The content is really why we are out of patience and not willing to let him continue,” wrote Solnick earlier in the same email.
The former lecturer’s analysis of global economic forces is generally viewed as one stemming from a more radical perspective.
Summa, 60, and his family still live in Burlington, where he has a financial services consulting company called optionsnerd.com.
He also runs a painting business and a film company called Rise Up Filming, which recorded the Labor Relations Board hearing as part of a documentary he is producing entitled “Class Action: The Global Insurgency against Establishment Economics.”
