Hundreds sign petition for Granieri

Student discontent with the tenure denial of History professor Ronald Granieri has continued to grow in recent days. A petition requesting the administration reconsider its decision garnered more than 300 signatures in 20 hours.

The petition was authored by students in Granieri’s senior honors thesis seminar and began circulating early Wednesday morning. It calls Granieri “the embodiment of Penn’s reputation for excellence in undergraduate instruction” and says his dismissal would “damage the reputation of the University, the strength of the Department of History and the student body as a whole.”

The group wrote the petition after receiving what College senior and thesis seminar member Daniella Mak described as a “flood of e-mails” from students and alumni asking to help support Granieri.

The petition is addressed to School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell, who has the power to send Granieri’s tenure application to the Provost Staff Conference, the next step in tenure review. Then it would be considered by the provost, deputy and associate provosts and a group of deans.

His application was rejected in the second stage of review by the SAS Personnel Committee, a group of faculty representing the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

Bushnell acknowledged in an e-mail that she had heard from many students expressing support for Granieri and recognized their “high regard for his teaching,” but could not comment further. Granieri declined to comment on the petition.

The group is planning on leaving the petition open until Sunday at midnight. College senior Zac Byer, a member of the thesis seminar and the Undergraduate Assembly, said he will introduce a resolution similar to the petition on behalf of the seminar and interested students and alumni at Sunday night’s UA meeting.

The petition can be found at www.gopetition.com/online/34818.html.

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