Portland, OR, September 8, 2021 — The Board of Trustees of Portland State University must conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the abrupt resignation from the university of philosophy professor Dr. Peter Boghossian, the Oregon Association of Scholars (OAS) said today.
The investigation should look into potential abuses of authority and unprofessional conduct starting with PSU president Stephen Percy and including diversity staff, research practices staff, faculty members, and faculty union leadership, said OAS president Dr. Bruce Gilley.
Boghossian announced his resignation today in a letter to the PSU provost that was published online. In it, he charged the university with violating not only his personal academic freedom rights, but the rights of everyone at the institution. “Educational institutions should remind us that that right is also our duty. Portland State University has failed in fulfilling this duty. In doing so it has failed not only its students but the public that supports it.”
Under Oregon state law, PSU’s 15-member Board of Trustees oversees governance at the university and evaluates the university president.
“We are calling on the Portland State University Board of Trustees to conduct an investigation into this resignation and to hold to account all faculty and staff whose abuse of their positions of power forced Professor Boghossian into this difficult decision,” said Gilley.
“The fact that one of Oregon’s most significant public intellectuals cannot survive at one of our public universities speaks volumes about the ideological takeover of PSU,” said Gilley. “It is up to the Board of Trustees to carry out its responsibility to investigate and correct this great loss to our state’s higher education.”
The Oregon Association of Scholars is the Oregon affiliate of the National Association of Scholars. Visit NAS at www.nas.org, and OAS at www.oregonscholars.org.
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For more information please contact Dr. Bruce Gilley at [email protected].
Image by Paul Pardi - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18427037
