DrAugustus Is a Professor at a University and Is Up

question 69

Essay

Dr.Augustus is a professor at a university and is up for tenure.He is a black male of African heritage and speaks with a very strong and very difficult-to-understand accent.When upset or excited,his accent becomes incomprehensible.When his tenure committee reviews his credentials,it finds that he meets and exceeds the publication record required of a person applying for tenure.The committee also sees that his student evaluations are consistently negative,citing an inability to communicate his ideas to students,constant lateness to class,and unexplained essay grading that appears to be arbitrary.The evaluations also claim that he rarely maintains appropriate office hours and won't provide assistance to students.Peer and supervisor evaluations indicate his unwillingness to contribute to committee work and a general lack of camaraderie.His accent has been addressed,but he has constantly rejected any suggestions to improve his communication skills.It is recommended that he be denied tenure.Subsequent committees come to similar conclusions,and he is given a termination contract.Reasons given include his inability to communicate,his refusal to work with students,his failure to maintain office hours,and his refusal to work with other faculty.Dr.Augustus believes that he has been denied tenure primarily due to his race and African heritage and files a claim with the EEOC.When the EEOC investigates,it finds numerous black faculty members of African heritage,many with pronounced accents,both tenure track and tenured.Has Dr.Augustus been discriminated against? Why or why not?

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Definitions:

Long-term Exposure

Prolonged contact or engagement with a particular substance, environment, or stimulus, which may have lasting effects on health or behavior.

Sound Waves

Sound waves are vibrations that travel through the air or another medium, which can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear, characterized by their frequency, wavelength, and amplitude.

Frequency

The rate at which a vibration occurs that constitutes a wave, either in a material (as in sound waves), or in an electromagnetic field (as in radio waves and light).

Pitch

Refers to the perceived frequency of a sound, determining how "high" or "low" it sounds.