Ole Miss professor who urged people to stick their fingers in senators' food granted tenure

The state College Board on Thursday spent nearly two hours behind closed doors before granting tenure to a University of Mississippi assistant professor who once encouraged confronting Republican U.S. Senators at restaurants as political protest.

Assistant sociology professor James Thomas was criticized last October after calling for interrupting senators' meals in response to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination.

“Don’t just interrupt a Senator’s meal, y’all,”  Thomas wrote on Twitter on Oct. 6. “Put your whole damn fingers in their salads. Take their apps and distribute them to the other diners. Bring boxes and take their food home with you on the way out.”

Thomas’ employer and Gov. Phil Bryant denounced the tweet, with the latter calling the statements “troubling." Some people called for Thomas to be fired over his comments.

Trustees on Thursday said the university's backing of Thomas was a key reason the board decided to grant his  tenure. 

Thomas on Thursday said he has "absolutely no regrets about anything I said," but said he didn't mean for his comments to be taken literally or incite violence.

"I think the current administration did a really good job of defending the values of this institution," he said. "I don't think that excuses the last seven months. We as an institution need an offensive strategy when it comes to academic freedom. It’s very clear to me, people on the IHL either don’t know what these things are or don’t have respect for them. That’s something we as a university can address."

Interim Ole Miss Chancellor Larry Sparks declined to comment.

Approving tenure, which provides legal and academic safeguards, is usually a routine affair for the governing board of Mississippi's public universities.

Universities annually submit candidates for tenure and trustees generally defer to the institutions' judgement.

But trustees on Thursday took Thomas off the consent agenda where multiple items are approved with one vote, and met behind closed doors about Thomas.

A spokeswoman for the American Association of University Professors said the group, which advocates academic freedom, had been closely monitoring Thursday's vote. ”

Then-Ole Miss Chancellor Jeff Vitter also condemned the message, saying the social media post "did not reflect the values articulated by the university, such as respect for the dignity of each individual, civility and fairness." 

University leaders asked the trustees to grant tenure status to 28 faculty members, including Thomas.

Trustees in a statement acknowledged that Thomas' tweets resulted in the separate discussion of his tenure. 

"Following discussion, including consideration of the Board's support for academic freedom and expression, ultimately it was the recommendation of the professor's institution, the University of Mississippi, that carried the greatest weight in the majority of the Board's decision to grant tenure to the professor," the board said in a statement.

The American Association of University Professors, which advocates for academic freedom, closely monitored Thursday's vote. 

The group sent a letter to the State College Board ahead of Thursday's vote referencing the group's censure list of institutions where "unsatisfactory conditions of academic freedom and tenure have been found to prevail."

"We hope that this experience the board has undergone has increased their understanding of the protections of academic freedom that should be due to faculty members at public institutions," Anita Levy with the AAUP told the Clarion Ledger.

"(We're) hoping that this will serve as a precedent if something like this should come up again."

Higher Education Commissioner Al Rankins raised the possibility to the Associated Press that withholding Thomas' tenure could have run afoul of a regional accrediting school and college agency.

One of the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Colleges principles of accreditation is that university governing bodies must be free from political interference.

SOURCE: Harris, Bracey. "Ole Miss professor who urged people to stick their fingers in senators' food granted tenure."  Mississippi Clarion Ledger, 16 May 2019, https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/05/16/professor-who-urged-harassing-senators-given-tenure-ole-miss/3692169002/