| NEWS
| July 21, 2005
Faculty/Staff
Students protest lecturer’s termination
Students petition to keep Rangadhar
Dash here; they say education quality is at stake.
By Heather
Ann White
Contributor to The Shorthorn
Despite the recent growth in student population,
the Information Systems and Operations Management Department is
experiencing budget cuts and declined enrollment, forcing it to
eliminate some faculty positions.
But students have started a petition to save the job of senior lecturer
Rangadhar Dash.
The petition states that by letting Dr. Dash go, “educators
are preoccupied with cutting costs and giving students a very substandard
education” and that “students at UTA are being sold
short.”
The petition was started June 30 by finance graduate student Jessica
Baker, who believes Dash to be one of UTA’s best professors.
“The petition is signed by 50 students to keep one of the
better professors on board at UTA,” she said. “By letting
him go, [the department] is jeopardizing the quality of our education.”
Dash has two doctorates in applied mathematics and mechanical engineering
and three master’s degrees in mathematics, aerospace engineering
and computer science and engineering and has been teaching for seven
years. He has studied at London, Cambridge, Stanford and Texas A&M.
Nakisa Zedwar, human resource management graduate student, was one
of Dash’s students. Zedwar, who majored in psychology, said
Dash’s class was difficult for her but that he took the time
to go over the material.
“He had faith in me and my ability to overcome my difficulties
with calculus,” she said. “He knows that the material
he covers may be difficult to some and easier to others.”
Zedwar also said Dash was one of the few professors she’s
had who knows all of his students’ names and who takes the
time to get to know each individual.
“I feel that he has beyond the credentials needed to remain
at the university, and the university should be glad to have a professor
with such intelligence and prestige,” she said.
Department chair R.C. Baker said they had no choice but to let people
go.
“Information systems enrollment has taken a real nosedive,”
he said. “Most courses have been forced down to one section.
If there are no students to teach, then there are no sections.”
Baker said that letting people go always creates unhappiness with
students.
“There is no issue with Dr. Dash,” he said. “If
the administration gives me money to rehire people, I’ll do
it.”
Dash, who is upset by the department’s decision, said he is
pleased by the students’ reaction and with the petition.
“They are expressing their feelings and opinions of me as
a good professor who provides them an excellent education and also
who is the best credentialed and most qualified professor in the
university system,” he said.
Dash said the petition should have an impact because he believes
that it will be the students who will be affected the most from
his leaving.
“It is the attitude or politics of the department chair to
get rid of me when there are so many less qualified faculty members
in the department,” he said.
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