As he begins his final semester at Penn State, lecturer Jose Texidor has assigned himself one last task before he cleans out his desk: to convince the administration to define the word "consulting."
Texidor was terminated after crime, law and justice department head John McCarthy found him to be in breach of his contract after he engaged in what was deemed to be "consulting" at another institution. This came after he was put on probation because of issues concerning grade inflation in his classes.
"There's this unwritten rule that your grades have to have some quality spread," Texidor said.
"The department head stated that I was giving a false impression to criminal justice majors that it's easy. How can you make a statistical evaluation when you haven't seen me in class or evaluated any of my paperwork?" he said.
To further his cause, Texidor e-mailed Penn State President Graham
Spanier earlier this month with the hope of making progress regarding contract definitions.
Instead, he received a 15-word response from Tom Poole, vice president for administration.
"Personnel decisions are fully within the purview of the college. The President does not intervene," the e-mail read.
Texidor said he was disheartened by the response but has not wavered in his opinion that he was wrongly terminated, though he has no plans to take legal
action.
"The president's a busy man and he can't deal with me," Texidor said. "I'm just asking that somebody in the hierarchy make a decision on a policy manner. It can't be one that is decided by the college."
McCarthy could not be reached for comment, but Penn State spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz wrote in an e-mail, "We have no information to share on what obviously is a personnel matter being decided within the college."
Texidor said he incurred a $25,000 loss upon being put on probation in 2008
and was forced to take up other employment in order to make up for the financial loss.
"I didn't sit around and twiddle my thumbs," he said. "I tried to make up for action against me. This rule that they have about consulting is not applicable."
In his remaining time at Penn State, the 14-year lecturer said he is on a mission to protect other faculty members from meeting the same fate as he did, as he attempts to convince university administrators to more stringently define contract language.
In last Friday's Board of Trustees meeting there was no discussion of any contract clarification.
