Penn State official’s ‘unprofessional’ response to students’ anti-racism letter draws criticism

A month after the sudden resignation of Penn State’s head of the Department of African American Studies, questions are bubbling within the college over a new controversy — one that involves a university official chiding six students over their pointed criticism.

Six graduating students from the College of the Liberal Arts — which counts African American Studies as one of its departments — co-authored an April 28 letter to the editor in The Daily Collegian, Penn State’s independent student newspaper, chastising Dean Clarence Lang for his role in the resignation and questioning the university’s commitment to racial equity. In response, a high-ranking university official emailed the students a three-page letter Tuesday to express her “disappointment” in their “false claims.”

That faculty member, Jennifer Hamer, opened the email by saying she was writing in her capacity as an African American Studies professor. But she failed to mention she is also the spouse of the criticized dean and works with President Neeli Bendapudi as the adviser for institutional equity and as the interim associate vice provost for Educational Equity.

“As some of the student marshals who wrote the original letter, we can say that these communications by administrators have raised questions about the extent of the administration’s respect for our own protected freedom of expression,” said a co-authored statement from five of the students, explaining such correspondence can have a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression due to the “clear power differential.”

The students who signed the statement are all marshals for the College of the Liberal Arts, meaning they’re among the 36 students to represent the college during commencement. Marshals are chosen based on academic achievement and contributions to student life.

A faculty-based group, Coalition for a Just University, issued its own statement after learning of the exchange between the students and Hamer.

“In her letter to the student marshals, Professor Hamer violated professional protocol by failing to identify herself as a high-ranking university official and as the spouse of Dean Lang,” the group wrote. “Further, her three-page ‘private’ letter can be viewed as a strong-arm form of intimidation in an attempt to silence student dissent. ... (I)t is unbecoming of Professor Hamer to engage in such unprofessional behavior.”

Penn State’s chair of the university faculty senate did not immediately respond to a Friday message seeking comment. In a written statement Friday afternoon, executive vice president and provost Justin Schwartz said faculty are free to share their personal views.

“The free exchange of ideas, including debate, is fundamental to the mission of higher education,” Schwartz wrote. “The senior administration was not aware of this correspondence; however, we have learned Dr. Hamer was writing to provide accurate details in her capacity as a tenured full professor of African American Studies, as faculty are free to share their personal views.

“As I have stated before, I look forward to working with Dean Clarence Lang in his pursuit of excellence in the Department of African American Studies and to achieving objectives that have been previously outlined.”

The roots of the most recent back-and-forth can be traced to the April 5 resignation of Michael West, who penned a 2,500-word explanation for the sudden move. In that open letter, West accused Lang of broken promises involving new tenure-track hires, questioned the university’s commitment to diversity and equity, and described the department’s morale as “dispirited and morose.” Schwartz responded last month by asserting West made unsubstantiated claims, though he did not specify which claims.

Several weeks later, student marshals for the College of the Liberal Arts opened their 800-word published piece in the Collegian by expressing support for West. They charged administrators like Lang for “creating a hostile atmosphere” for African American Studies faculty and believed the cancellation of the Center for Racial Justice — a move Lang supported — acted contrary to promises of enhancing diversity and inclusion efforts.

In response, Hamer sent a 1,700-word email to the students that opened by expressing how she was “surprised and disappointed” in their letter to the editor. She implied they were misinformed, echoed Schwartz’s past statement that West’s claims were unsubstantiated and said the university was not divesting from African American Studies.

“In terms of the department’s operating budget there has been further substantial investment, not disinvestment,” Hamer wrote. “For example, the department has had a steady increase in its operating budget. This includes an enhancement for faculty travel for research and conferences — which supports their career development and facilitates promotion.”

Although she highlighted much of the university’s current work in her email to the student marshals, she also didn’t hold back in her opinion of the students’ actions. “I appreciate that discerning fact from fiction can be difficult in the current social, political and cultural landscape,” she wrote. And, elsewhere, when noting Lang was the first to include students of color as marshals, “Please look at the photos on the wall when you are next in Sparks.”

About four hours after Hamer sent her Tuesday email, the associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of the Liberal Arts — Richard Page — sent the students a significantly shorter email that adopted a much softer tone. In 150 words, he invited the students to reach out if they were interested in having a conversation.

In the student marshals’ written statement, they questioned if there was any coordination between Hamer and Page — but mostly focused on Hamer. Coalition for a Just University did not address Page’s email in its own statement, but called for Hamer to make a public apology to the students.

The student marshals ended their statement by raising two questions involving Hamer and Bendapudi.

“Given the failure of Hamer to disclose her status as both the Dean’s spouse and an administrator with a longstanding relationship with President Bendapudi that spans the University of Kansas and the Pennsylvania State University, as well as the unresolved question of possible coordination between Hamer and Page, both of whom have links to Dean Lang, we are left highlighting a final pair of reasonable questions,” the students wrote. “Did President Bendapudi know about Hamer’s email to the student marshals and about the reasonable concerns about ethics that this email raises?

“If President Bendapudi does know about this communication, does she endorse it?”

The five student marshals who signed the most recent statement include Maggie Bond (Sociology), Jessica Kim (Comparative Literature), Emma Messersmith (Criminology), Ahyanna Navarro-Foreman (African American Studies) and Jake Otto (Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures).

Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts is set to hold commencement at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Bryce Jordan Center.