College panel cites mental health in dismissal recommendation

A US professor has called for greater awareness of “academic mobbing” after a university committee cited her mental health when recommending her dismissal.

Manhattan College, a private liberal arts institution in New York, last year carried out a six-month internal investigation into the conduct of Ann Marie Flynn, who was a tenured associate professor of chemical engineering at the college.

According to internal documents seen by Times Higher Education, the university accused Dr Flynn of 15 charges including “intimidating and abusing students by raising her voice towards them in classrooms and public settings”, “coercing students to participate in extracurricular activities unrelated to their degrees” and “being disruptive at department meetings”. Dr Flynn refuted the charges.

The final report from the hearing committee, which dates from November, references Dr Flynn’s “current medical condition”, stating that it “seems likely to be exacerbated by returning to teach full time in the chemical engineering department and is even more likely to undermine the effectiveness of her teaching”.

“Given these concerns, along with the seriousness of the college’s charges found to be substantiated, it is impossible to envision how Dr Flynn can return to the chemical engineering department as a full-time member of the faculty. Therefore, regretfully the hearing committee must recommend termination of service,” the report adds.

Dr Flynn, who started working as an academic at Manhattan College in 1991 and resigned shortly after receiving the report, told THE that her recent experience resulted in her being diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

She claimed that she has been a victim of “academic mobbing” since she made complaints about the deteriorating quality of education in her department, following a period of leave in 2014. While she was on a separate period of medical leave in 2017, someone “defecated in my wastepaper basket” and stole course binders and a watch from her desk, she added.

Kenneth Westhues, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo in Canada and the author of several books on workplace bullying in academia, defines academic mobbing as “an impassioned, collective campaign by co-workers to exclude, punish, and humiliate a targeted worker”, during which the “target comes to be viewed as absolutely abhorrent with no redeeming qualities”.

One of the charges brought against Dr Flynn was that she chose to communicate about incidents that occurred in her office “widely to faculty, students, and others” and suggested that such incidents “were intended to be a form of harassment of her”.

“These unfounded and inappropriate communications caused further disruption in the department, and to the faculty and students, and further harmed the reputation of the department,” according to the charges presented to the termination of service committee.

Dr Flynn said that while there are laws against discrimination and harassment in the US, “there is a black hole” when it comes to protections for employees against psychological harassment, which is “so prevalent in higher education”.

“My hope is that my story drives it home…that it makes people understand that this is happening and it can’t,” she said.

A Manhattan spokesman said that “the report authored by the hearing committee, which was composed of tenured faculty, made findings on the charges against Dr Flynn and made a confidential recommendation to the president of the college”.

“The committee made that recommendation after a process that included numerous days of hearings, witness testimony, and documentary evidence. These proceedings were held over the course of six months during which Dr Flynn was represented by counsel,” he said.

“Prior to the final determination by the college, Dr Flynn voluntarily tendered her resignation from her tenured position and the college accepted it.”

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com