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Professor Joan E. Friedenberg
Community Leaders Forum

Academic mobbing is a form of workplace bullying, an ugly phenomenon that currently affects about 20 million U.S. workers. Mobbing is the single worst threat to worker health and safety, often leading to post-traumatic stress disorder and even suicide. Academic mobbing targets are usually professors who speak out against university policies and practices they believe are unfair. And like bullied children, these professors often differ from their peers in other ways, such as religion, skin color or language.

Unfortunately, mobbing occurs at SIUC. When a foreign-born SIUC professor of Social Work complained that her department chair forged her signature on a document, the chair and his allies ganged up on her by signing a petition to have her removed from the department and unjustly blamed her for a litany of department troubles, harassing her for years. When an aging SIUC professor of Curriculum and Instruction became active in the faculty union and filed grievances against his chair, the chair's allies signed a petition demanding his physical removal from the department. Administrators granted their wish, and he has been subjected to vandalism and numerous humiliations and inconveniences that interfere with his work.

I'm a victim myself. After I helped organize the faculty union, wrote letters to the editor, filed grievances, picketed and protested the firing of JoAnn Argersinger, I was moved out of my department, had mail stolen and doors slammed in my face, found graffiti on my door, and received lower raises, inappropriate course assignments and unjustified disciplinary letters. Then interim provost Margaret Winters hired a Missouri psychologist who wrote a report saying that I was a destructive person, in need of both administrative discipline and professional help. The report was disseminated by e-mail around campus. Nowhere did it say what I had done to deserve that characterization, making it obvious that it was based on my speech, opinions and political activities. Evaluations of my teaching and research were always excellent.

After the dissemination of the psychologist's report, SIU counsel met with administrators to devise ways to terminate me. Amazingly, I noticed I was being followed in my car and later found a memo from my department chair suggesting private investigators be used to see if I was misusing a printer and to see if I really practiced the Jewish faith.

I fought back. Though I'm now on medication for arrhythmia, insomnia and depression, SIU is under investigation by the state; the psychologist is under investigation by the APA; SIU lost a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment in a case I've brought in federal court; and I've published a book chapter about my treatment by SIUC. All along, what I've been asking for is simply a written apology and what it has cost me to get it.

Mobbing hurts everyone, and it's time for it to stop at SIUC. I suggest that administrators and faculty attend workshops where they can learn more about addressing mobbing. Without action to change administrative support for mobbing, victims will have no recourse but to the courts and to publicity. Neither will add to SIUC's luster or to its effort to achieve the goals of Southern at 150.

Joan Friedenberg is a professor of linguistics at SIUC. These views do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Egyptian.