Submitted by Jacob Holloway
In October, James G. Martin Institute President Jenna Robinson was hosted by the Nevada Board of Regents for a talk on “effective governing boards in higher education,” causing deep concern among stakeholders, including the Nevada Faculty Alliance (NFA), which spoke out about the radical anti-faculty policies this invitation reflects.
The invitation to speak before the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) regents was followed up by a quid pro quo a few days ago when the Martin Institute published an article by Portland State University Professor Bruce Gilley attacking a recent amici brief written by the NFA and American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in support of Dr. Alice Wieland in her pending case against NSHE at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is a testament to the shamefulness of NSHE’s position that Gilley is praising NSHE and attacking Wieland.
Professor Gilley has taken extreme positions on a litany of controversial issues and counts among his friends and supporters Rob Allen, who is believed to be behind Ron DeSantis’ undemocratic takeover of New College Florida.
DeSantis, who has been busily appointing political friends to lucrative positions in higher education, has appointed politicians Ben Sasse and Richard Corcoran as college presidents, in spite of them having zero experience in higher education.
Not unlike New College, University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) President Brian Sandoval also has no background in education but was a judge, attorney general, and two-time governor, which makes the position of UNR president a conflict of interest and a potential political reward.
Gilley’s arguments, which are disturbing to read, are essentially that if Wieland’s claims of gender bias in teaching evaluations are accepted, then any woman or minority could simply get out of accountability for bad teaching by claiming bias. He even goes as far as to say that a man could come out as nonbinary in order to belittle his bad teaching evaluations.
He also supposes there are inherent differences that could make women less effective teachers, thus earning them lower evaluations, and spins the argument that it would be unfair to “deprive” men who “learn better” from other men professors “like themselves” of that opportunity.
Gilley also alternates between saying that student evaluations are not that important to tenure committees and justifying them being weighted so strongly against Wieland, both potentially due to some “underlying reality” of inferior teaching performance from women and because “it takes a serious degree of poor evaluations for such scores to matter to a committee,” implying Wieland must have been particularly bad in his mind. Those arguments sound sexist and harmful to women and minorities to me.
Gilley failed to carefully review the case and evidence, probably because his sexist arguments would not be supported by it. The declaration of Barry Spraggins paints a disturbing portrait of a College and Department that is filled with serial abusers shielded by UNR administrators.
Wieland’s case is but one of many high-profile matters involving sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and even rape, painting a horrifying picture of campus administrators that wield absolute authoritarian control and are driven purely by a desire to cover up misconduct for their friends and prevent negative media from harming enrollments and budgets.
When over 120 student protesters attended the groundbreaking of an allegedly corruptly approved new business building (for the members of Wieland’s former department named in her case) to highlight Title IX noncompliance, President Sandoval lied to students that he did not know about Feifei Fan’s case in which she alleges human trafficking, rape, and involuntary servitude by faculty and on campus.
Sandoval also claimed that he did not remember (doubtful, given it was mentioned in an op-ed the day before) a similar case (Gaillard) in which he was judge, making ridiculous rulings in NSHE’s favor against the international student rape victim. It should be noted that, as judge, Sandoval referred to sexual abuse and rape endured by Ms. Gaillard by her advisor as a “friendship.”
NSHE appears to have enjoyed special favors from the judiciary for decades, and Sandoval is reported to be personal friends with the majority of judges. Another James G. Martin representative, director of external relations George Leef, followed Gilley’s article with his own mocking, sexist opinion piece applauding District Court Judge Miranda Du (like Brian Sandoval, an alum of the powerful Nevada law firm McDonald Carano) as having “good sense for silly litigation” because she dismissed Wieland’s case.
Leef described Du as a “he,” even though Judge Du is a “she,” in assuming the ruling reflects “good sense,” but it more likely reflects conflicts of interest. Civil rights cases in Nevada occasionally get coverage for outrageous rulings, not uncommonly saddling victims with the state’s legal fees, creating a chilling effect that judges like Miranda Du acknowledge as they implement it.
NSHE is hostile to any outside oversight into its internal activities, but the many civil rights cases against it reveal an urgent need for accountability to address its toxic culture that shields abusers and campus processes specifically designed to fail victims.
The very arguments Gilley uses to refute the existence of discrimination are discriminatory and disgusting, and this is the company NSHE’s administration is in as it spends taxpayer money undermining alleged victims. Sandoval referred to UNR as a “bastion of democracy” to spin the protests at which he lied to students, but this is not what democracy looks like, and I wish UNR had a president who offered less politics and more integrity.
Jacob Holloway is the former University of Nevada, Reno Nye County Extension Educator and Nye County Conservation District Supervisor. He is currently an advocate for reform, transparency and accountability within the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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