To: Prof. Lou Gross, President-Elect, UTK Faculty Senate Prof. Shawn Spurgeon, President, UTK Faculty Senate Cc: Prof. Monica Black, AAUP UTK Chapter President Prof. Diane Kelly, Vice Provost Prof. John Zomchick, Provost Dear Faculty Senators: As a fellow Faculty Senator, I would like to call upon your action towards a clear statement on (1) the tenure suspension of Prof. Anming Hu, and (2) your opinion (support or not) of the AASF’s petition at: https://sites.google.com/princeton.edu/casforum/home On 2/27/2020, Dean Janis Terpenny of Tickle College of Engineering (TCE) wrote to the TCE faculty: “I wanted to make you aware that the University of Tennessee has suspended Associate Professor Anming Hu, who was indicted by federal authorities on felony charges this morning.” Regardless of the status and final result on the current lawsuit against Prof. Hu, the university needs to explain the reason on the decision made by Dean Terpenny, and a clear statement on the abiding of Faculty Handbook is needed. Plenty of news coverage (including Knox News) and social media discussions express their desire to know whether Prof. Hu will be reinstated to his tenured professor position, should the prosecution is dropped, etc. It is also a regret that UTK Faculty Senate did not voice its opinion (I apologize if such statements have been made, but I am unaware). Since Dean Terpenny abruptly announced her resignation earlier this year (for reasons that have never been disclosed to TCE faculty), perhaps Prof. Kelly and Prof. Zomchick need to step in on this issue. Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) has launched a petition against a similar action by New York University on suspending its two faculty under the same situations. This AASF is made of distinguished academicians that will file lawsuits towards New York University, and clearly soon follows the same action towards UTK. You may dismiss one petition like this one, but countless others will flow suites. I am not speaking on behalf of AASF or any group of faculty on UTK campus, but just of myself. As a Faculty Senator myself, I’m simply requesting the Faculty Senate to take on this issue and make the just actions and statements. The entire university and the general public need to know the meaning of “suspension” and whether the procedure has been followed toward a tenured professor at UTK. Your kind consideration of such a request is highly appreciated. Prof. Yanfei Gao https://gao.utk.edu From: Black, Monica Ann Sent: Sunday, July 4, 2021 5:42 PM To: Gao, Yanfei ; Gross, Louis J ; Spurgeon, Shawn Lamont Cc: Kelly, Diane ; Zomchick, John P Subject: Re: Request a statement from UTK Faculty Senate and Provost's Office Dear Yanfei, As a UTK faculty member, AAUP member, Faculty Senator, and member of the FS Appeals committee, I support the petition and I fully agree that there must be a statement from the university explaining Professor Hu’s termination. I did want to let you know that my term as president of UTK’s AAUP chapter is now over. The new president is Prof. Mary McAlpin (mmcalpin@utk.edu). Please feel free to remove my name from this correspondence and include hers instead. Many thanks and best regards, Monica From: "Gao, Yanfei" Date: Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 6:50 PM To: "Black, Monica Ann" , "Gross, Louis J" , "Spurgeon, Shawn Lamont" , "McAlpin, Mary K" Cc: "Kelly, Diane" , "Zomchick, John P" Subject: RE: Request a statement from UTK Faculty Senate and Provost's Office Dear Monica, Thank you for your kind message and support. Now I have Mary copied on this message. Dear Mary, please see the messages below. You are copied for you are the present president of UTK AAUP chapter. Thank you for your kind patience. Prof. Yanfei Gao https://gao.utk.edu From: Gross, Louis J Sent: Monday, July 5, 2021 4:39 PM To: Gao, Yanfei ; Black, Monica Ann ; Spurgeon, Shawn Lamont ; McAlpin, Mary K Cc: Kelly, Diane ; Zomchick, John P ; Lyons, Beauvais ; Schussler, Elisabeth Ellen ; Gross, Louis J Subject: Re: Request a statement from UTK Faculty Senate and Provost's Office Professor Gao, Thank you for your note of concern regarding the Faculty Senate’s actions on the tenure suspension of Professor Hu. First, there has been a set of correspondence with the Chancellor. Professor Beauvais Lyons has, in his role on the UTK Advisory Board and Chair of the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee, advised the Chancellor to consider offering Professor Hu the opportunity to be reinstated with full back pay. Though I certainly don’t have the details, this seems the very least that the institution can do, and may forestall a long and painful series of lawsuits. The correspondence on this is posted on my President’s page at http://lgross.utk.edu/facpres2021.html Second, this is a personnel issue and as such some aspects of it are confidential. There are a variety of appeal mechanisms available to faculty (e.g. the Senate Appeals Committee) and all are handled in a confidential manner. I am not privy to information regarding any appeals that have been or are being made on this case. Third, with regard to internal UTK processes, when I was Senate President previously, the Faculty Handbook required the Chancellor to consult with me for certain personnel actions regarding faculty. Then Chancellor Crabtree did so and these were indeed “consultations” in that we had fairly extensive discussions of the cases involved before the Chancellor acted. These were some of the most challenging matters I dealt with as President. Though I may not have agreed with the decisions, at least I as a faculty representative had input. In Professor Hu’s case, then President Skolits told me that he was not similarly consulted – he was simply informed that the action was being taken. This seems to contravene the requirements in Faculty Handbook (Section 3.12.3.8). I am not privy to any information regarding former Dean Terpenny’s decision processes or the fact that she left the Dean position – again this is a personnel matter that involves confidentiality. Fourth, Beauvais (I am ccing him) in his role as Chair of the Senate’s Faculty Affairs Committee will be asking the Committee to review the processes to be followed in such cases to ensure similar painful situations do not arise again. I assume this will also involve discussion of the AASF petition you noted. I hope this clarifies the Senate’s formal response to the case so far. However, the situation is fluid and I suspect will change. Please do pass on any further advice you have for how else the Senate might act regarding this situation. Stay well, Lou -- Louis J. Gross (he, him, his) Chancellor’s Professor and Alvin and Sally Beaman Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics Director Emeritus, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS.org) Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling University of Tennessee - Knoxville President, 2006-2007, 2021-2022, UTK Faculty Senate Past-President, 2003-2005, Society for Mathematical Biology http://lgross.utk.edu/ From: "Gao, Yanfei" Date: Monday, July 5, 2021 at 5:17 PM To: "Gross, Louis J" , "Spurgeon, Shawn Lamont" , "McAlpin, Mary K" Cc: "Kelly, Diane" , "Zomchick, John P" , "Lyons, Beauvais" , "Schussler, Elisabeth Ellen" Subject: RE: Request a statement from UTK Faculty Senate and Provost's Office Dear Lou, I highly appreciate your and Beauvais’ dedications to this matter. Your website has a lot of great stuff, which certainly echoes UT President Boyd’s spirit on transparency. Although the past actions by the Faculty Senate on matters of similar severity (like the censure letter related to the firing of past UTK Chancellor) bear no direct consequences except reconfirming the rubber-stamp image that the general public views us as, it is still critical for the Faculty Senate to communicate its actions both fully and promptly. Therefore, could I ask your kind consideration in posting this entire email on your website? Considering the international fame of this matter, I doubt whether our faculty or the general public will accept “confidentiality” (as you quoted in your second and third bullets) as the answer to their questions. Therefore, could I ask your kind consideration in summarizing Faculty Senate’s actions and presenting them to at least the Faculty Senate email list? Transparency can certainly prevent unjust rumors and unfounded mistrust. I sincerely hope you will agree with me on the above. Thank you again for your kind considerations. I look forward to a wonderful academic year at the Faculty Senate with you. Warm Regards Yanfei PS: I have removed Prof. Monica Black from this email reply, per her request as her presidency of AAUP UTK Chapter has been passed to Prof. Mary McAlpin. Prof. Yanfei Gao https://gao.utk.edu