Community Corner
UGA Art Professor Loses Tenure Revocation Appeal; Regents Uphold Firing
Art professor and teacher James "Jim" Barsness will lose his job.
UGA art professor James Barsness had sex in a public place, with an undergraduate he was supervising, during UGA's 2012 Maymester study abroad program in Costa Rica. He then told the young woman not to talk about the encounter because he would lose his job.
He was right.
On Wednesday, the Board of Regents voted to deny his appeal and uphold his tenure revocation, issued by then-President Michael Adams last spring, according to a story in the Athens Banner Herald. Adams overruled a five-member faculty committee, which was split about whether to revoke tenure.
The story quotes a letter Adams wrote to Barsness, which says:
He was right.
On Wednesday, the Board of Regents voted to deny his appeal and uphold his tenure revocation, issued by then-President Michael Adams last spring, according to a story in the Athens Banner Herald. Adams overruled a five-member faculty committee, which was split about whether to revoke tenure.
The story quotes a letter Adams wrote to Barsness, which says:
“Upon review I have determined that public sex with a student under one’s direction and control in a UGA program merits termination. It is my judgment that the charges were sustained and that your employment relationship with UGA, including tenure, should be terminated as of this date.”
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