(NAME-MCE) Towson University Fires Adjunct for Racial Remark

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Towson University Fires Adjunct for Racial Remark

Towson University fired an adjunct last week after he called himself,
in class, a "nigger on a corporate plantation," The Baltimore Sun
reported. Allen Zaruba, the adjunct, made the comment in a discussion
of controversial works of art. Zaruba, who is white, told the Sun he
realized that he shouldn't have made the remark and that he apologized
for the comment, and didn't think it unsettled his class. But at least
one student and parent complained and Zaruba was fired.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.towson03mar03,0,5606410.story

Towson adjunct professor fired for racial remark in class

By Childs Walker | childs.walker at baltsun.com  Baltimore Sun

March 3, 2010

A Towson University adjunct professor was fired last week after using
a racially insensitive term in his art class.

Allen Zaruba, a local artist who had taught at Towson for 12 years,
said he was discussing provocative works depicted in textbook chapters
on the body and identity when he used the term.

"I crossed the line," he said. "I made a terrible, terrible mistake."

Zaruba, who is white, said his black stepfather used racial terms
freely and that "I never quite got the horror of the word."

"But I will never use that term again," he said. "It is absolutely
transgressive."

"As soon as I said it, I thought, 'Lord have mercy,' " Zaruba
recalled. He said students did not have a strong apparent reaction but
he nonetheless apologized at the beginning of the next class.

On Thursday, three days after uttering the remark, Zaruba learned he
had been fired in a phone call from interim department Chairman Stuart
Stein. He said Stein told him the racial slur was "never, never, never
to be used anywhere on campus."

"It was determined that the comment he made was inappropriate for the
classroom, especially in the context it was used," said university
spokeswoman Marina Cooper.

Cooper said one of Zaruba's students and a parent complained to
provost Marcia Welsh. She said there were no disputes about the facts
of the incident.

Though a report in the campus newspaper The Towerlight said Zaruba was
examining legal options to fight his dismissal, he said Tuesday, "I am
sorry, and I am not going to contest the provost's decision."

News of the incident was just spreading across campus Tuesday morning,
students said. Deverick Murray, president of the Black Student Union,
said most of his members had probably not heard about it and that the
organization had not arrived at an official response.

Adam Jackson, president of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a campus
group that promotes social justice, said he didn't know the context of
the incident but was intrigued by Zaruba's wording, which included
reference to "a corporate plantation."

"I think that the university firing him on the basis of using a
racially charged word is an excuse to escape criticism from across the
university," Jackson said. "At worst, it could be a racially
insensitive analogy, but to call the university a 'corporate
plantation' would be a deep statement that directly challenges the
politics of this university."

Cara Ober, a fellow adjunct professor in the art department, said she
was sad to hear of Zaruba's dismissal because he had served as a
mentor to many successful artists.

"He's incredibly passionate about teaching," Ober said. "Very
energetic, very exciting in the classroom. I think he's an excellent
teacher."

Cooper said the president's office had not received much reaction to
the situation.

Zaruba, 58, taught three classes this semester and said he was
devastated that his mistake might cost him future teaching
opportunities.

"I have given my life to this," he said, noting that he spent the
2003-2004 school year in South Korea on a Fulbright teaching
fellowship.

"I believe in helping art students to make the future better. I love
them all dearly."

He said he also works as a prison minister for Rock City Church of Parkville.

Despite taking responsibility for his error, Zaruba said his firing
raises troubling questions about the power of political correctness in
modern society.

"Are we in for another state of McCarthyism?" he said. "We have to
have compassion and realize that people are not perfect."