A communication instructor of four years at Mississippi State resigned after academic officials told him an accreditation committee requirement would prevent his yearly contract renewal for the 2005-06 academic year.
Bob Tryanski taught one section of public speaking and one section of advanced television production this semester and was supposed to teach the same courses in the spring. He resigned, effective at the end of the semester, after Provost Peter Rabideau and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Philip Oldham cited a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Principle of Accreditation as the reason for his non-renewal.
“I felt like if I am not qualified in the fall, I shouldn’t be teaching in the spring,” Tryanski said.
“This has come up before. In all cases Phil has approved it,” he said. “That’s why I was a little bit confused because the SACS requirements haven’t changed. The university’s policies haven’t changed.”
The principle says that instructors should have a master’s degree in the discipline they teach. Tryanski has a master’s degree, but it is in history.
The guideline also permits the institution to consider an instructor’s “competence, effectiveness, and capacity, including work related experiences.”
John Forde, head of the communication department, endorsed Tryanski’s renewal in a letter sent to Oldham.
In the recommendation letter Forde cited Tryanski’s six years as a video producer for syndicated segments that aired on national affiliates, his 15 years as a professional speaker in 42 states, Canada and South Africa and his teaching experience at Syracuse University.
“I think Bob has been an excellent teacher in the time he’s been here. Feedback from students has been very positive,” Forde said. “It’s really a decision that various people make-whether someone is allowed to teach or not. It’s a variety of people up the ladder who decide.”
Oldham approved the suggestion and passed the letter onto Rabideau for final approval. “Well, I felt supportive of it at that point in time,” Oldham said.
Rabideau said when the proposal came across his desk, he noticed Tryanski’s master’s degree did not meet the SACS requirement and sent the proposal back to Oldham for further consideration.
“If a person doesn’t meet the criteria, I ask the dean,” Rabideau said. “The dean of the college is an important decision maker.”
Rabideau said he didn’t get a convincing argument from the dean, adding, “what I want is the dean to come in and pound his fist on the table that we are doing the right thing.”
“If they don’t have the qualifications to serve in that capacity, then you’re not going to meet accreditation standards,” Oldham said. “Performance as a teacher is not part of the criteria to meet SACS requirements. It’s whether they have the academic credentials.”
Tryanski called the non-renewal a “professional slap in the face” because he felt he had demonstrated dedication to students and the program by voluntarily guiding students through independent studies; executive producing “Round Robin,” a show created this fall by students; assisting with departmental equipment purchases; and helping facilitate the program’s shift from linear systems to nonlinear systems.
“It seems strange that you can be qualified to teach for four years, have excellent teaching evaluations, the support of your colleagues and two department heads (Forde and former department head Marian Huttenstine) and then just be arbitrarily told that those credentials that have been good enough up to this point are no longer good enough when nothing else has changed,” Tryanski said.
Junior communication major and director of “Round Robin” Brett Bouchillon is in Tryanski’s advanced TV production course. He said he couldn’t believe it when he heard Tryanski was not going to be asked back in the fall.
“He’s been one of the best and most accessible instructors I’ve had,” Bouchillon said. “He bends over backwards to help us.”
Bouchillon said he plans to visit Rabideau’s office to make a case for Tryanski.
But Bouchillon’s voice might go unheard.
“If all the students in the world wanted to hire someone off the street to teach calculus we wouldn’t hire him,” Rabideau said. “My son is in high school and he could probably teach a computer science course here, but we are not going to do that.”
Tryanski said he would stay on as executive producer of “Round Robin” to help stay connected to the community and said he appreciated the support of Forde, Huttenstine, University Television Center director Ralph Olivieri, departmental colleagues and students.
“It’s nice to know that students care,” Tryanski said. “It would also be nice to think that administrators value students’ perspectives as they make long-range decisions. It’s one of the things universities are about.”