“Complete strangers are speaking up for me. It’s humbling and an awesome experience and extremely moving,” said Ted Roberts, former Senior Instructor of History for Tarleton State University.
Roberts, who has taught a variety of U.S. History courses for the university over the past 12 years, was informed April 30 that his contract to instruct would not be renewed for next year.
This move was completed, according to a letter from the Faculty Senate and comments from Roberts, for retaliatory reasons after the professor expressed opinions about faculty parking fees at a listening tour event on campus April 12.
Listening event
The listening session was geared, according to an internal email received by the Citizen, as “a valuable opportunity for you to contribute insights on our achievements, voice concerns, and propose solutions.”
The event purported that Tarleton President Dr. James Hurley would be present to offer updates, provide contextual information, and address subsequent questions. Listening sessions also occurred in 2019 and 2022.
“Importantly, the discussions will be exclusively reserved for faculty and staff, fostering an environment conducive to open dialogue and meaningful engagement,” the email states.
The event was to only have Dr. Hurley and his Chief of Staff Dr. Credence Baker present, along with those faculty and staff from the College of Liberal and Fine Arts during the 1-hour sessionRobertswouldattend. No other administration was to be present to allow for open conversation.
Roberts said about a week prior to the listening session a survey was sent out asking faculty and staff what they would like to discuss. Parking fees were among the issues as well as salaries and benefits.
During the event, approximately 40 faculty and staff attended with more joining via Zoom.
Roberts said a discussion arose about 30 minutes in when Dr. Hurley started discussing becoming an R-1 school and parking fees.
“Typically, a recording would be done but no recording of the meeting exists,” Roberts said. “Usually it would.”
However, an anonymous 9- minute audio recording was released Thursday, June 27, by Beneath the Surface News, a news site owned by journalist Sara Vanden Berge. The recording presents the discussion between Dr. Hurley and Roberts. (The audio recording is available for free on the site’s Facebook page and website.)
“If you would like, I will send out what other schools are paying across the state,” Dr. Hurley can be heard saying about the parking fees. “You are going to be shocked. We are much lower than other institutions of this size and scope.”
Years of military service on how one addresses a senior ranking officer took effect and Roberts stood up and said, “Not true, sir. It’s flat out not true.”
Throughout the discussion Roberts presented a variety of information about parking fees at other universities. He admits his research was cursory and some of the numbers were found to not be the latest figures.
Dr. Hurley can be heard asking to see Roberts’ figures and he gave the notes to Dr. Baker after the meeting.
“He said ‘We’re still going to be friends after this,’” Roberts said, regarding Dr. Hurley and his relationship. “We parted on good terms.”
Currently, faculty and staff pay $400 a year for parking on campus. Roberts’ own cost jumped from $105 a year to $400.
“I can afford it,” he said. “I was thinking of all these administrative assistants, staff folks that cut the grass, trim trees, and they’ve got to pay $400.”
A two-time veteran
Roberts’ life hasn’t always been easy, and as a twotime active military member becoming a college professor wasn’t his original plan as a lifetime career.
In 1987, Roberts graduated high school and then entered college.
“I didn’t do so well. I wasn’t focused,” he said.
Moving back home to Godley, where his mother still resides, he knew he had to make something of his life, so in 1992, he joined the U.S. Marines. Serving for five years on both the east and west coast, including Korea and Guam, he left the military in 1997 as a Sergeant and was an intelligence analyst.
“I wanted to try something else, and I was 27,” Roberts said.
Since the Marines have the lowest GI Bill contributions, he sought a less expensive college and found Tarleton, which is part of the Texas A&M University System.
“I did well this time and switched my history major over to criminal justice due to a change in foreign language requirement,” he said.
In 1999, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Tarleton.
Hedecidedtomoveforward into a master’s program at Tarleton for history and was a graduate assistant teaching some basic history courses. Graduating with his master’s in 2000, he taught as an adjunct professor for a single year. Then 9/11 happened.
“I thought, ‘I gotta get back in the fight somehow,’” Roberts said. “But I knew age would be an issue.”
At this point, he was 35 years old, but after checking military branches, the U.S. Army gave him an age waiver.
In 2005, he went to Army Officer Candidate School in what is now Ft. Moore, Georgia, and graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant.
He thought for sure he would become an ordinance officer whose primary job is to fix tanks, but he got a congratulations letter stating he was in infantry.
“It’s the hardest job in the Army,” he said.
Flying to Kuwait and then into Iraq in Sept. 2006, Roberts said there were enormous casualties when he first started his tour of duty. He was overseas from 2006-09, an exceptionally long tour of 17 months.
He came back home in 2009 and was pushing 42 years old.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to be a career Major at the end of my time in the Army, so I began looking for civilian jobs,” he said.
Roberts was thinking about law school when his mentor Chris Guthrie at Tarleton asked if he would be willing to teach again.
“He said, ‘We could use some help for one semester,’” Roberts said.
That semester turned into a full year and then into a yearly contract that was renewed 11 times as he taught.
Letter of support
Uponleavingtheuniversity June 28, Roberts has one of the highest student loads each semester, served on the College of Liberal and Fine Arts committee that was reviewing guidelines for tenure and promotion. He also agreed to be on a search committee for the department. Roberts serves as mentor to Teacher Education Program certification students, ROTC and Corp of Cadets students, and history majors.
A letter of recommendation from Department Head Dr. Jensen Branscombe was sent to Dr. Stearns and asked for him to be reinstated due to his excellent reputation as a professor.
Roberts said he really enjoyed the students, especially those in ROTC or Corps of Cadets since they reminded him so much of the young kids he would come across in his platoon or battalion. He also loved his basic history courses because he could impart a love of history with storytelling, drawing students into history through his classes.
“I never had run-ins with administration. Nothing has happened in the past 12 years. Nothing,” he said.
In the letter, Roberts is cited as having higher than a 4/5 on most student reviews.
The letter also states that nothing about Roberts’ service record concerned the author about how he performed his job and he has not been placed on any professional development plans.
He has also received the 2020 COLFA Barry B. Thompson Service Award.
Non-renewal of contract On April 30, Roberts was a bit confused when he received an email from Aimee Shouse, the acting dean of the Liberal and Fine Arts College, asking to meet with him later that day.
He asked her what it was about, but got no response.
“I honestly thought it was something regarding the committee I was serving on to review guidelines for tenure and promotion,” he said.
Showing up at his office late that afternoon she told Roberts that the decision had been made not to re-appoint his contract.
“So they’re firing me?” Roberts said.
As a senior instructor, despite being there for 12 years, he was not tenured and not on a tenured track, meaning his contract had to be renewed annually. It had been every year, previously.
According to information provided in a Texas Tribune article, it was ultimately the provost’s decision not to renew Roberts’ contract and it could be appealed.
On behalf of Roberts, the Faculty Senate wrote a letter to Dr. Stearns and Dr. Hurley.
“We are aware that in Texas an institution may decline to renew a contract for a good reason, a poor reason, or no reason at all; but according to established law, it cannot do so for retaliatory reasons,” the letter states.
“The actions by administrators in this regard have resulted in a widespread impression of a retaliatory environment, which in turn has created a chilling effect throughout the university. If a well-regarded faculty member can be non-renewed because he ardently spoke up about parking at a ‘listening session,’ then how can any member feel confident in speaking up about more serious matters? Certainly, you can understand the atmosphere that has been created and how that is not conducive to a healthy and effective work and teaching environment,” the letter states.
Response by the Provost A letter publicly released anonymously online with a signature from Dr. Stearns was given in response to the Faculty Senate letter.
“I appreciate your acknowledgement that ‘an institution may decline to renew a contract for a good reason, a poor reason, or no reason at all; according to established law;” however, your letter gives the impression that there is a misunderstanding about the definition of retaliation. Legal retaliation speaks to a materially adverse action taken against a protected activity. The inaccuracies in Mr. Roberts’ presentation are alluded to in the Chronicle of Higher Education of June 21, 2024, “His research was cursory, he said, and there may have been some errors,” Dr. Stearns writes.
She wrote that she remains fully committed to the tenets of academic freedom that faculty should be entitled to full freedom with respect to discussion and debate in teaching and research.
“I also note the recognition in that document that faculty hold a special position in the community that imposes special obligations, and that faculty ‘at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, and should show respect for the opinion of others ...” she writes. “No one is exempt from the consequences of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. This includes personal prejudicial attacks or the attribution of false motive to those with whom they disagree. Veteran status does not allow one to act in a manner inconsistent with our duties as professional educators or outside the boundaries of civil boundaries.”
The Citizen reached out to Dr. Stearns to confirm the letter was written by her and received a reply from Sven Alskog, Director of University Communications at Tarleton stating: “Our university does not comment on personnel matters.”
Potential outcomes
Texas is an at-will state, meaning anyone can be let go at any time. However, veterans do have some different rules.
Certain categories of veterans who are employees of or applicants to covered federal contractors or subcontractors have specific protections under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA).
A veteran is considered a “protected veteran” under VEVRAA if he or she is a: disabled veteran; recently separated veteran; active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran; or Armed Forces service medal veteran. (Roberts has 80% military disability, four campaign ribbons and two Bronze Stars).
“Tarleton State is a federal contractor so they are liable for those laws,” Roberts said.
Ultimately, Roberts has decided not to file his own lawsuit against Tarleton at this moment, saying the action would be “essentially suing Texas taxpayers.”
He is pursuing four civil rights suits with the Department of Labor against Dr. Hurley and Dr. Stearns specifically for their actions, he said.
Roberts has held out hope through the process that he will simply be reinstated for the job he loves so he can remain close enough to continue to check on his elderly mom once a week.