[Linganth] In support of our colleague Janina Fenigsen

[Aurora Donzelli]

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing this letter in support of our colleague Janina Fenigsen, who, after nine years of service, has been hit by the massive and unfair job-cuts undertaken by Northern Arizona University.

Janina was laid off on Wednesday May 27, without any notice or explanation. Janina’s NAU health insurance is due to expire today, which means that she only had two business days to prevent a lapse in hers and her husband’s health insurance. Instead of being notified in writing, Janina was informed of the decision through a zoom call made by Karen Pugliesi, the Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The notification of non-renewal came over two weeks after the expiration of her current contract, which prevented her from applying for unemployment benefits for the month of May.
I collaborated with Janina on a number of AAA panels and have always appreciated her scholarly and pedagogical commitment to our discipline. She has always been an active and collaborative voice in this very mailing list, relentlessly and passionately at work to develop new syllabi for her classes and curricular innovations to booster student learning and engagement. In 2014, for her work at NAU, Janina received an Exemplary Performer Award. In her nine years as a lecturer at NAU, Janina taught an average of 800-1000 students per academic year, from 100-level to grad seminars. She chaired and served on graduate committees. In spite of the considerable teaching load (by any standard), Janina has always been an active and generous member of our SLA community and has been able to maintain an active publication record: She co-authored a book published last January by Routledge, published in Ethos, Semiotica, and Semiotic Inquiry. She has recently served as NSF grant reviewer, SLA John Gumperz Prize reviewer, and is stand-by consultant to the Yavapai Nation on language maintenance. She is also a PI on an active research grant from Spencer Foundation.
These are very challenging and uncertain times. COVID-19 has initiated an economic and health crisis of unprecedented scale affecting Northern Arizona University and our nation in drastic ways, but this does not justify the brutality of the measures NAU adopted to layoff a large number of its non tenured faculty members. Not only they were given no explanation of what were the criteria for the enforced cuts, but also the extremely short notice with which these decisions have been communicated has deprived these faculty members and their families of their health insurance, and this happened during an unprecedented health crisis.
I would like to invite you to sign the letter I drafted in support of Janina’s case, which I uploaded (after Janina’s prior review and consent) on change.org<http://change.org/>
http://chng.it/vmr6b2zD

Thanks for your attention.

Aurora Donzelli

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Aurora Donzelli
Associate Professor
Sarah Lawrence College
1 Mead Way
Bronxville, NY 10708 USA
E-mail: adonzelli at sarahlawrence.edu<mailto:adonzelli at sarahlawrence.edu>
https://www.auroradonzelli.com/


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