Yesterday, AAUP Miami submitted a petition asking Miami leadership to reconsider an extraordinary plan to fire two faculty members over their association with an unusual and valuable plant growing in the Conservatory. AAUP’s petition, sent in advance of a faculty hearing on the issue scheduled for late September, also asks for the rehiring of the Conservatory’s former manager. Thanks to all of you who signed. See Press Coverage below if you’re unfamiliar with the story.
Petition signers include over 2,300 Miami faculty, students, and community members as well as botanists and anthropologists from across the US (and beyond). Several former Miami deans signed, as did former Miami President James Garland, who referred publicly to the University’s decisions as “boneheaded.”
Letters of support for the employees have been sent to Miami by the Botanical Society of America, the Ohio Conference of the AAUP, Professor Gretchen Walters of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, award-winning Miami emeritus professor of botany Hardy Eshbaugh, and the American Anthropological Association. Their letters are viewable at the links.
Miami’s treatment of these employees (which effectively destroys two careers and injures the third) is not only plainly unjust, it is damaging the University’s reputation. If you check Professor Gladish’s, Professor Cinnamon’s, and Mr. Grubb’s employment histories, you will find dedicated, committed scholars and servants of the University. As word of this and other harsh, zero-tolerance policies and decisions has spread, Miami’s reputation is suffering. This is a defining moment for the University.
Approaching the situation as an opportunity for growth, rather than as an occasion for drastic and inappropriate discipline, would strengthen (and mitigate damage to) Miami’s reputation for academic freedom, scholarly opportunity, and rigor.
Press coverage of the Iboga issue
Inside Higher Ed, July 3, 2019: “How a rare plant could cost two professors their careers”
Cincinnati Enquirer, July 5, 2019: “Miami University must reverse unjust decision to terminate professors” h
Cincinnati Enquirer, July 3, 2019: “The iboga tree affair: A confiscated shrub, hallucinogenics and suspended professors rile Miami University campus”
Newsweek, July 17, 2019: “A DEA Visit, a Psychedelic Plant, and Controversy Bloom at Miami University”
Local 12 WKRC, July 15,2019: “Miami University faculty members could lose jobs over psychedelic plant in conservatory”
TheScientist, July 3, 2019: “Professors Could Lose Jobs for Housing Rare, Psychedelic Plant”
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