Parkside prof appeals board's recommended punishment

By Brent Killackey

Friday, September 23, 2005 2:04 AM CDT

SOMERS - Embattled University of Wisconsin-Parkside Professor Xun "George" Wang - who has been embroiled in a dispute over teaching a weekend class - is appealing his recommended punishment to the Board of Regents.

The Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee, an elected body of nine faculty members, recommended in June that Wang be demoted from associate professor to assistant professor and take a salary reduction of $5,000 for refusing to teach a Sociology 101 course.

That's the apparent recommendation to the Board of Regents by UW-Parkside Chancellor Jack Keating, who initially sought to dismiss Wang.

Keating declined on Thursday to comment about his recommendation to the Board of Regents.

Based on the university's processes, if a chancellor disagrees with the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee's recommendation, he must explain and respond, according to Gregory Mayer, outgoing chair of the committee and associate professor of biological sciences. No such explanation was given to the committee, indicating he is following their

recommendation.

No date has been set for the Board of Regents to consider Wang's appeal.

"Basically, the whole issue is I have been falsely charged by the university," Wang said in an

interview.

Wang, who is a tenured faculty member, contends the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee erred in formulating its recommendations. The sociology course in question was not a weekend college course, he did not have a mandatory responsibility to teach weekend college and the department chair didn't follow the established procedures in assigning it to him, he said.

"If this is my duty, I'll have no problem to do this duty - but this is not my duty," Wang said.

The Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee found

otherwise.

"These recommendations for discipline reflect our conclusion that Prof. Wang's conduct had a gravely adverse impact on his obligations to the university, and especially on his obligations to students," the committee report states.

Wang, who teaches sociology, said he volunteered to teach one weekend course in 2004-05, but refused to teach a second weekend course that was assigned.

Wang showed up for the first day of class, explained his objections to teaching the course to the more than 50 students and then left the classroom. UW-Parkside found a sociology lecturer to finish that evening's class and found another sociology lecturer to teach the remaining classes.

Wang previously said he was willing to teach his share of the weekend courses, but he objected to being assigned the bulk of the courses - a move he considered harassment.

Wang once filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Equal Rights Division of the state's Department of Workforce Development over the weekend assignments. The matters were dismissed after the university responded that teaching the classes wasn't mandatory, he said, showing a document that outlined the university's response.

Wang said the university's pursuit of this matter was a waste of taxpayers' money that was damaging his reputation as well as the university's reputation. He said if the university drops the matter and pays his attorney fees, the matter can be put behind them and everyone can get on with their work.

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