A professor at a public university is being investigated for wearing blackface at a private Halloween party. She has been put on leave, and many people are calling for the University of Oregon to fire her after 34 years on the faculty. I get that it's in poor taste but come on... she was dressed in costume as Damon Tweedy, author of "Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine."
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/inde...d_for.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/inde...d_for.html
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The law professor who wore blackface at a Halloween party is a distinguished member of the University of Oregon faculty who's taught at the school since 1982 and once served as chair of the law school's diversity committee, according to her resume.
Nancy Shurtz is the UO School of Law professor whose Halloween costume sparked condemnation from her dean, the president of the university, and 23 of her colleagues.
A law school colleague confirmed Shurtz's identity to The Oregonian/OregonLive on the condition of anonymity. University officials have declined to disclose the professor's name, citing employee confidentiality.
Shurtz did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The 68-year-old professor is an expert on tax policy and estate planning and has written for Estate Planning Magazine since 1990. According to her online resume, she earned her law degree from Ohio State University in 1972 and worked at the University of Pennsylvania prior to arriving in Eugene in 1982.
She was paid $163,588 during the most recent school year, according to UO records, and was teaching classes this fall. The law school offers a scholarship in Shurtz's name, thanks to an anonymous donor's gift in 1994, one of dozens listed on the school's website. Shurtz is also one of four professors currently awarded a Bernard A. Kliks endowed professorship, which are given to faculty who've "demonstrated strength in teaching, high ethical standards and having made significant contributions to the legal community," according to a UO statement.
Shurtz appeared in blackface Monday during an off-campus Halloween party, which was attended by faculty members and students. Shurtz hosted the party at her home, according to a separate university staffer.
UO President Michael Schill and other campus leaders sent a campus-wide message Tuesday confirming that a faculty member had worn a costume that included blackface.
The costume prompted a swift rebuke from faculty, alums and students alike. Twenty-three of Shurtz's colleagues signed an open letter, not naming Shurtz directly, but calling on the professor to resign if the "allegations are true." There are 35 tenured or tenure-track faculty members at the school and more than 40 who teach classes to the more than 400 law students.
"Blackface is patently offensive," the professors wrote Wednesday. "It is overtly racist. It is wildly inappropriate. It reflects a profound lack of judgment. There is no excuse."
John Branam, a 2004 law school graduate who took courses from Shurtz, called for her resignation on Facebook.
In an interview, Branam said he's a proud alumnus, but that the university needs a "far deeper understanding of micro-aggressions students of color and white students have to navigate on a daily basis in order to be successful on campus."
"When a tenured law professor who has been an institutional leader for 25-plus years shows up at a party in blackface," Branam said, "that doesn't just happen without it being connected to other kinds of perhaps questionable behavior."
Branam, who sits on President Schill's diversity council, stressed he doesn't blame UO as an institution.
Moorisha Bey-Taylor, another law school graduate, started an online petition asking for the professor to resign. As of Thursday afternoon, the petition had more than 700 signatures.
Michael Moffitt, the law school dean, sent a message to students and alums decrying the professor's choice to wear blackface. He also placed Shurtz on paid administrative leave.
Schill sent a message Tuesday evening denouncing the incident as "anathema to the University of Oregon's cherished values of racial diversity and inclusion."
In his campus-wide message, Schill said the professor had apologized for the decision.
The Oregonian/OregonLive requested a copy of that apology but has yet to receive it. The Register-Guard and KEZI-TV in Eugene posted portions of it on their websites. She appeared to have told students her costume was based on "Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine." The memoir tells the story of Dr. Damon Tweedy, a black doctor, and his reflections on race and medicine.
In her apology, according to the TV station, Shurtz said her daughter is a medical school student and didn't have any black male students in her class. "She and others were outraged," Shurtz wrote, according to the KEZI account. Her daughter then was able to get a portion of Tweedy's book assigned as reading.
Shurtz said she thought she would "be able to teach with this costume as well (or at least tell an interesting story)," according to the KEZI story.
"I am sorry if it did not come off well. I, of all people, would not want to offend."
