MIT professor begins hunger strike over tenure denialBy Associated PressMonday, February 5, 2007 - Updated: 05:59 PM EST
BOSTON- A black MIT professor began a hunger strike Monday to protest theuniversity’s decision to deny him tenure - a decision he claims was basedon racism.
James Sherley, 49, a stem cell scientist, said he has triedunsuccessfully for two years to persuade administrators at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology to reverse a decision by his department head toreject his bid for tenure.
In December, Sherley gave MIT officials a deadline of Feb. 5 to reversethe decision. If not, he said he would start a hunger strike outside theoffice of MIT provost L. Rafael Reif.
Sherley stuck to his word. After eating two bowls of Chex cereal forbreakfast, he stood outside Reif’s office for several hours Monday morningin a peaceful protest, accompanied by about 25 friends and supporters.
Sherley, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 254 pounds, said heplanned to go without food and ingest only water, vitamins and electrolytesupplements until the university acknowledges racism played a role in thedecision to deny him tenure. He said he would spend three hours each morningoutside Reif’s office, then continue his research work in his lab at MITin the afternoons.
“Right now I have no plans on stopping until something significantchanges,” Sherley said Monday.
“I’m not actually doing this to get tenured. I’m doing this for thereason that I wasn’t tenured - which is racism - and I want thisinstitution to admit that that is the problem and make plans to do somethingabout it.”
MIT administrators denied Sherley’s allegations and said less thanhalf of MIT’s junior faculty members are promoted to tenured positions.
MIT Chancellor Phillip Clay would not comment on the specific reasonsSherley was not advanced on the tenure track. But he said administrators -as part of the tenure process - sought input from experts outside of MIT inSherley’s field.
“He didn’t come up to the standard we expect based on those inputsfrom the outside,” Clay said.
Sherley, however, said his department chairman told him his externalletters were fine.
“This is gamesmanship on the part of the university,” Sherley said.“Some of the external letter writers have sent me their letters becausethey were shocked and surprised that I had not received tenure.”
Clay said since the original decision to deny tenure, Sherley’s casehas been examined three separate times, including by a committee of seniorfaculty members from different MIT departments who reviewed the allegationsmade by Sherley. They found no evidence of racial discrimination.
“We’re satisfied that race was not a factor in the denial of histenure case,” Clay said. “This was a specific question by the panel thatconducted a review - was racism a factor? - and they said it was not.”
Sherley is known for his controversial theories about stem cells. Heworks with adult stem cells and opposes research using human embryonic stemcells because he believes it amounts to taking human life.
In September, he won a prestigious Pioneer Award from the NationalInstitutes of Health. The $2.5 million grant is for scientists takinginnovative approaches to biomedical problems.
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