August 25, 2014

Dear Dr. McKinney:

I am having a very difficult time with a number of things that have been occurring at VSU and would like
to share my concerns with you. As you know, I am not one to keep my thoughts to myself especially
when it concerns the Womens and Gender Studies program and the social justice work that our faculty,
staff, and students do on behalf of WGST and the University in general. The WGST program prides itself
on the fact that we are feminist activist scholars with a goal to pursue intellectual work and
achievement with a vision of social justice. Our faculty and students are very active on campus and in
the community promoting social justice via projects such as the Clothesline Project, The Handprint
Project, V-Day Events (including productions of The Vagina Monologues), the Bandana Project, the Slut
Walk, organizing food and clothing drives, petition drives, educational lectures and teach-ins, letter
writing campaigns, and bringing various regional guest speakers (many of whom are not paid because
we do not have funds to do so) to campus to address diversity, gender, race, class and the social
injustices incurred by so many in our society. Our program is a social justice program as both feminism
and Womens Studies programs were born out of political and social movements for the sake of
exposing and changing the injustices in the world. Social justice is part of the WGST programs identity,
it is part of our mission, and it is now a part of the Universitys mission. That is why I am very distressed
by a recent conversation I had with Provost Rogers concerning Dr. Mark Georges social justice actions,
the WGST programs social justice actions, and the Universitys response to Dr. Georges actions.
As you are aware, Dr. George has been teaching as an Adjunct Professor for the WGST program for the
last several years. As such, he was issued a VSU e-mail account. The University feels that Dr. George
misused his e-mail account when he sent a letter to the Governor and General Assembly members
asking them to no longer fund confederate holidays or the upkeep of confederate monuments with
state funding. Dr. Georges teaching and research area of expertise is race. His social justice work at the
university (while employed as an assistant professor in the Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice
Department and as an adjunct professor for WGST) as well as in the community focuses on race. He
founded the Mary Turner Project which is a race based social justice movement that is made up of
students, faculty, staff, and community members. I was one of the original members of the MTP. He has
been very engaged in his race social justice work so I am finding it difficult to understand why the
university is defining an email sent by his VSU email account as a misuse of state property since it is part
of his job and all of our jobs at VSU to promote social justice per the Valdosta State University Mission
Statement.
During our meeting, Dr. Rogers asked me if I thought Dr. Georges use of his email constituted a conflict
of interest. I do not think it does based on our social justice mission and academic freedom and I told
him such (I also gave him a copy of the VSU Mission Statement since he stated he did not have one). Dr.
Rogers asked if I thought what Dr. George was doing was a misuse of public property because he was
using state resource for political purposes. At this point I laughed as I believe this entire university
system and ALL of the shareholders are political and EVERYTHING the university system and employees
(especially high level administrators) do is political, has a political agenda, or is done with the political
ramifications in mind. I was especially bothered when the focus of my conversation with Dr. Rogers
shifted from Dr. Georges transgressions to the work of WGST. I asked how the WGST program with
their stated social justice mission and the mere premises of feminism and womens and gender studies
could NOT be political. Feminism is political. Social Justice is political. WGST programs are political. As
the Director of the WGST program I sign petitions and send them through my VSU e-mail account on a
frequent basis asking the Governor, Congress, the President of the United States and an assortment of
other political figures to take action on behalf of issues concerning women, girls, gays, lesbians,
transgendered persons, the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, etc. I see this as part of my job, as
part of my identity as the Director of the WGST program, and as part of my department and universitys
mission and part of my academic freedom. Dr. Rogers stated I could sign these types of petitions but I
should do so using a personal e-mail account and as a private citizen not the Director of WGST. If we
follow this logic then that means the WGST program will not be allowed to display the Clothesline
Project (that attracts a great deal of positive press for VSU) which is a very bold political and social
justice action to bring about awareness and stop violence against women. Likewise, we will not be
allowed to do any of our other social justice actions, which have also been lauded even by you Mr.
President, for ALL of them implement the use of state resources.
I STRONGLY disagree with these characterizations as I believe this is in direct conflict with the mission of
feminism, social justice, the WGST program, our university, and academic freedom. Furthermore, I have
looked at the BOR and State Personnel Policies and I have yet to see any statement that denies a
university employee the right to use state resources (including e-mail accounts) to carry out their job as
stated by the mission of their program and their university. What I have seen are statements that focus
on political campaigns and endorsing candidates (which ironically appears to be more in line with what
the university is doing in terms of the Dr. Ben Carson event than what Dr. George or the WGST program
do when effecting positive change through our social justice work).
I believe the action the University took against Dr. George (deactivating his email account without
notice) is an unjust action and was in direct response to his social justice work. I saw the explanation
that was given to Dr. George for the abrupt deactivation of his account and the procedure that was
quoted to him from the ITs webpage under the Frequently Asked Questions section. It stated that the
university deactivates e-mail accounts 45 days after a person leaves VSU. This may very well be the
written procedure but I can assure you (as can every other professor and administrator on this
campus) that is not the daily operating procedure. I have stayed in touch with a number of ex-faculty
members over my twenty years of employment here via their VSU email accounts. This past year I
communicated on a regular basis with a faculty member who left VSU over a year ago. This is not an
isolated case, this is the norm. If you ask around, others will tell you the same. I do not know of anyone
having their email deactivated without notice and within forty-five days of termination. To suggest this
is the working procedure and therefore the reason Dr. Georges email account was deactivated is
insulting to him as well as to those of us who work very hard at promoting and maintaining transparency
and honest communication between faculty and administration on this campus.
In terms of suggesting that Dr. George was no longer a VSU employee, clearly not conducting official
business, and therefore could not claim any kind of academic freedom I am wondering how that bodes
for other adjunct professors who are allowed to keep their VSU accounts during summer months when
they are not under contract. In fact, how does that ideology impact nine month faculty members who
are not under contract during the summer months but are conducting official VSU business (i.e.
research, grant writing, etc.)? Does that mean they do not have access to their e-mail accounts and are
denied academic freedom for the work they do during the summer? If so, this is a very frightening path
that the administration is taking concerning its faculty, one that I have asked the faculty senate to look
into.
In closing, I would like to say that for two years I worked very closely with you as the Faculty Senate
President and as a member of the Faculty Senate Executive committee. I heard you repeatedly talk
about social justice, social justice issues, and the right thing to do. I had a great deal of hope that
under your leadership things would be better concerning faculty, our academic freedom, our freedom of
speech, the transparency of the administration, and our participation in the shared governance. I find
myself very disappointed as it appears the progress of change has not only stalled but has moved
backwards to some of the more oppressive, non-transparent, and status quo times on this campus.
Conversations and promises are good but they mean nothing when they are not followed with action. I
hope that you will take a long hard look at what is happening on this campus and the ramifications. The
university cannot have social justice as its mission statement and be a model of social justice when its
actions are in fact anything but. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,

Tracy Woodard Meyers, Ph.D.
Director, Womens and Gender Studies
Professor, Sociology