O, the drama . . . in the NDSU history department

[Sal Atticum]

November 18, 2007
4 Professors at North Dakota State U. Protest Award for a Colleague

A “distinguished professor” award for a professor of history at North Dakota State University has reopened a rift within the institution’s history department, The Forum, a newspaper in Fargo, N.D., reports. The university gave the new title, which comes with a $20,000 raise, to seven people last month, including Thomas D. Isern, who has taught history there since 1974*.

Four other faculty members, however, have protested Mr. Isern’s award in e-mail messages to administrators, faulting the quality of his research and teaching. Mr. Isern declined to comment about the criticism, the newspaper said, but supporters defend his scholarship and point out that he has received other top university honors, including its Hogoboom Endowed Professorship.

The conflict has roots in a departmental rift in 2004, when one of Mr. Isern’s critics, Claire Strom, was accused of plagiarism. She was later cleared by a faculty committee, but afterward, she told The Forum, Mr. Isern continued making allegations against her and anyone who supported her. The initial accusation had been raised by a graduate student who is now married to Mr. Isern. —Charles Huckabee
Posted on Sunday November 18, 2007

link

*

The year is a typo. Dave Danbom, one of the four protesting professors (and the one who the four cite as more deserving of the award) has been there since 1974. Isern originally came to NDSU in the early 1990s as a Dean.

Just one comment I'd like to reply to:

Um, maybe I’m missing something, but what makes this news—i.e. something of interest or relevance to anybody outside the department concerned?

Because it's your tax dollars at work, of course!

[ajekt]

It seems as if most of this has cooled off.  It also seems it was blown way out of proportion by the media.