{"id":1083869,"date":"2021-12-04T12:44:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T17:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1083869"},"modified":"2021-12-04T12:44:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T17:44:20","slug":"he-stood-up-for-math-standards-and-his-college-tried-to-fire-him-hes-keeping-his-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/he-stood-up-for-math-standards-and-his-college-tried-to-fire-him-hes-keeping-his-job\/","title":{"rendered":"He Stood Up For Math Standards And His College Tried To Fire Him. He\u2019s Keeping His Job."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhe-stood-up-for-math-standards-and-his-college-tried-to-fire-him-hes-keeping-his-job%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1083869&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A Truckee Meadows Community College professor was nearly fired for daring to suggest the school retain rigorous math standards. Thankfully, he managed to keep his job.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Lars Jensen, a tenured math professor who has worked at Truckee for 22 years, had defended math standards when Nevada\u2019s new curriculum changed to essentially allow remedial math courses to count as college credit, The College Fix <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/college-works-to-fire-tenured-professor-fighting-to-maintain-rigorous-math-standards\/\">reported<\/a>. On October 1, Truckee initiated a formal hearing process to end Jensen\u2019s tenure and fire him, citing two years\u2019 worth of bad performance reviews. Jensen, however, told the outlet that the negative performance reviews are just cover for the school to fire him for objecting to the new curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason I received the unsatisfactory evaluations, I believe, is in retaliation for having spoken up against President Hilgersom and other administrators\u2019 management style,\u201d Jensen told the Fix in mid-October. \u201cIn particular, I have spoken openly about how the college has lowered the standards of a college math course, as the college has transitioned its curriculum in the course to the co-requisite remediation model now sweeping the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I spoke up against the lowering of standards in the course, I was silenced, given a letter of recommendation, and subsequently an unsatisfactory annual performance evaluation for 2019-20,\u201d he added. \u201cThe following year, the college again targeted me and falsely claimed my syllabi to be incomplete and that I missed a training, and for that they gave me another unsatisfactory evaluation for 2020-21.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In one of those negative reviews, Jensen was cited for passing out a flyer at a math summit that criticized the school for lowering math standards. The review cited him for \u201cinsubordination\u201d because he continued to hand out the flyer after being asked to stop.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, a hearing officer determined Jensen violated college policy by protesting the new curriculum. She mentioned the flyer incident, saying Jensen violated school policy by \u201cwillfully disregarding Dean Ellsworth\u2019s directions and interrupted the Math Summit by intentionally and without authorization distributing his handout during the Summit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A five-person faculty termination board, however, recommended Jensen keep his job, a decision that was accepted by Truckee President Karin Hilgersom.<\/p>\n<p>Jensen told the Fix that the determination was a \u201cwin for academic freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are relieved that the faculty committee made the right decision and that the president ultimately backed off,\u201d Jensen told&nbsp;the outlet. \u201cIt is good to see that academic freedom prevailed, as it should have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jensen was backed by several faculty organizations, who wrote to the hearing office in his defense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis termination would be a violation of his academic freedom and his rights as an academic faculty member and would constitute a travesty of justice,\u201d wrote the Nevada Faculty Alliance, the local affiliate of the American Association of University Professors. \u201cIn addition, it would very likely lead to successful litigation against TMCC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Academic Freedom Alliance also supported Jensen, writing that the negative reviews \u201cwere explicitly grounded in part on Professor Jensen\u2019s constitutionally protected speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a consequence, the disciplinary hearings raise grave concerns that Professor Jensen is being retaliated against for his constitutionally protected criticism of the college\u2019s administration and efforts to communicate his concerns about the academic functioning of the college to his colleague and to other interested parties, the organization wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jensen continued to work throughout the ordeal.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>&nbsp;member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Truckee Meadows Community College professor was nearly fired for daring to suggest the school retain rigorous math standards. Thankfully, he managed to keep his job.Professor Lars Jensen, a tenured math professor who has worked at Truckee for 22 years, had defended math standards when Nevada\u2019s new curriculum changed to essentially allow remedial math courses to count as college credit, The College Fix reported. On October 1, Truckee initiated a formal hearing process to end Jensen\u2019s tenure and fire him, citing two years\u2019 worth of bad performance reviews. Jensen, however, told the outlet that the negative performance reviews are just cover for the school to fire him for objecting to the new curriculum.\u201cThe reason I received the unsatisfactory evaluations, I believe, is in retaliation for having spoken up against President Hilgersom and other administrators\u2019 management style,\u201d Jensen told the Fix in mid-October. \u201cIn particular, I have spoken openly about how the college has lowered the standards of a college math course, as the college has transitioned its curriculum in the course to the co-requisite remediation model now sweeping the country.\u201d\u201cWhen I spoke up against the lowering of standards in the course, I was silenced, given a letter of recommendation, and subsequently an unsatisfactory annual performance evaluation for 2019-20,\u201d he added. \u201cThe following year, the college again targeted me and falsely claimed my syllabi to be incomplete and that I missed a training, and for that they gave me another unsatisfactory evaluation for 2020-21.\u201dIn one of those negative reviews, Jensen was cited for passing out a flyer at a math summit that criticized the school for lowering math standards. The review cited him for \u201cinsubordination\u201d because he continued to hand out the flyer after being asked to stop.Last month, a hearing officer determined Jensen violated college policy by protesting the new curriculum. She mentioned the flyer incident, saying Jensen violated school policy by \u201cwillfully disregarding Dean Ellsworth\u2019s directions and interrupted the Math Summit by intentionally and without authorization distributing his handout during the Summit.\u201dA five-person faculty termination board, however, recommended Jensen keep his job, a decision that was accepted by Truckee President Karin Hilgersom.Jensen told the Fix that the determination was a \u201cwin for academic freedom.\u201d\u201cWe are relieved that the faculty committee made the right decision and that the president ultimately backed off,\u201d Jensen told\u00a0the outlet. \u201cIt is good to see that academic freedom prevailed, as it should have.\u201dJensen was backed by several faculty organizations, who wrote to the hearing office in his defense.\u201cHis termination would be a violation of his academic freedom and his rights as an academic faculty member and would constitute a travesty of justice,\u201d wrote the Nevada Faculty Alliance, the local affiliate of the American Association of University Professors. \u201cIn addition, it would very likely lead to successful litigation against TMCC.\u201dThe Academic Freedom Alliance also supported Jensen, writing that the negative reviews \u201cwere explicitly grounded in part on Professor Jensen\u2019s constitutionally protected speech.\u201d\u201cAs a consequence, the disciplinary hearings raise grave concerns that Professor Jensen is being retaliated against for his constitutionally protected criticism of the college\u2019s administration and efforts to communicate his concerns about the academic functioning of the college to his colleague and to other interested parties, the organization wrote.\u201dJensen continued to work throughout the ordeal.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1083869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}