Treatment of Faculty

During the past five years, a number of faculty are no longer at Marian despite their dedication to the university and desire to remain.

• Mary Ellen Lennon, Assistant Professor of History (denied promotion and tenure by the university in 2017)
• Marsha Eppich-Harris, Assistant Professor of English (denied promotion and tenure by the university in 2018)
• Amber Nelson, Assistant Professor of Sociology (promotion and tenure deferred for three years by the university in 2019, contract terminated in 2021)
• William Foley, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts for 13 years and Pulitzer Prizing winning photographer (conflicting stories about why he left Marian in 2019)
• Jenny Ambroise, Assistant Professor of Art for 10 years and Marian alum (given a tenure track line in 2018 and contract terminated by the university at third year review in 2020)
• Wendy Vergoz, Assistant Professor of English for 13 years and published poet (contract not renewed in 2020)
• Stacie Hitt, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Nursing and Vice President of the Marian Chapter of the AAUP (asked to resign in November 2020)
• Pierre Atlas, tenured Full Professor of Political Science and founder of the Lugar Center for Global Studies (abruptly “retired” to take a non-tenure track senior lecturer position IUPUI in 2021)
• Johnny Goldfinger, tenured Associate Professor of Political Science and president of the Marian chapter of the AAUP (received a letter of nonrenewal in December 2021)

There may very well be other former Marian faculty members who were terminated or left under puzzling circumstances in the past five years. Keep in mind that there are only about 56 full time Marian faculty members in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The eight arts, humanities, and social sciences faculty listed above, represent 14% of the total faculty in those areas. In other words, one out of every eight arts, humanities, and social science full-time faculty have been terminated or felt pushed out in the past five years.

The Marian Chapter of the Association of American University Professors was organized and founded in the fall of 2019, in part, out of concern for the termination of good female assistant professors who also happened to be outspoken.

All of the human beings listed above were dedicated and hardworking Marian faculty members. How they were treated should raise questions about Marian’s commitment to the Franciscan values. Were there any attempts at reconciliation by the administration? Justice, responsible stewardship and respect for the dignity of the individual requires that we not forget their names and contributions to Marian University.