CU teacher: Dismissal was political.

News article from Tuesday's Boulder Daily Camera:

CU teacher: Dismissal was political.
Department official says academics sole reason for canceling courses

By Matthew Beaudin, For the Camera February 8, 2005

An environmental studies instructor whose classes have been canceled by the University of Colorado says she was denied reinstatement for political reasons.

Adrienne Anderson, who has taught CU courses critical of big-business environmental policy for 11 years, was effectively let go when the department of environmental studies voted Jan. 31 to cancel her courses after this semester.

Anderson said big-business pressure was part of her removal because her students' work often targeted companies with poor environmental records.

"If those corporations were acting within the law, my course would be continuing at CU," she said Monday.

James White, director of the environmental studies program, dismissed Anderson's claims. He said Anderson's courses were cut for academic reasons alone.

"It was based entirely on curriculum," he said. "That's absurd, to be quite honest."

White said budget constraints forced the department to abandon Anderson's classes in favor of "interdisciplinary" courses that touch on social and natural sciences, law and journalism. He said the department also needed to shift to courses that promote more skills.

"She teaches basically classes in for lack of a better term it's activism," he said.

Dozens of students defended Anderson on Monday, calling for her reinstatement during a rally outside the environmental studies office in the Benson Earth Sciences Building on campus.

"I don't think the environmental studies department should be taking away this opportunity for other students to be inspired by Adrienne," said Lisa Kaufmann , a former student of Anderson's and an environmental studies major who called the actions against Anderson a "gross attack on this whole major."

Sara Hagopian, who is enrolled in Anderson's "Race, Class and Pollution Politics" course, said, "I feel like I've learned more in four weeks than I have in lots of semesters at CU."

In 1996, student protests kept Anderson in the classroom after CU decided to cut an environmental ethics course she taught.

Anderson said she plans on appealing the current decision.

"My courses have been the most sought-after courses by the students," she said.

Anderson said her courses force students to take hard looks at the environmental practices of companies as semester-long projects.

"I try to have them do research that's not going to end up in their mother's closet," she said.

Philip Shabecoff, a longtime environmental reporter for the New York Times, agreed Monday with Anderson's claim that politics were forcing her out.

"I think the reason she was fired is because of her activism," he said.

Supporters are planning to protest again at noon Wednesday, starting at the fountain outside the University Memorial Center.

Copyright 2005, The Daily Camera. All Rights Reserved.