Students at Loyola University Protest Dismissal of English Department’s Only Black Professor

These students aren’t leaving their favorite professor in the dark.

After Loyola University decided last fall to fire assistant professor R. Scott Heath, also the African American Studies director, nearly one hundred of the institution’s students gathered last week to protest against what some call an “unjust” move.

NBC News reported the nearly two-hour protest included an on-campus march to the administration building where students demanded university officials reconsider Heaths’ dismissal, as the decision may fracture the university’s Black studies program.

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Heath was a faculty member at Loyola for four years and the only Black professor in the English department. According to the former Loyola professor, there was no straightforward answer to the reasoning behind his termination from his position with a 3-2 vote from within the English department.

Heath feels his emergency trip to North Carolina in September for the funeral of North Carolina Central University’s jazz studies director, Brian Horton, may have sparked the decision. While away in North Carolina, Heath continued to fulfill his duties as a professor. However, he missed the deadline to renew his contract.

After the English department provided an extension, there was no follow-up about a new deadline and no response once he submitted the required materials to the department.

“This experience is just a reminder that there are a lot of institutional bodies that see Black people, Black faculty as disposable — replaceable,” Heath said. He continued, “It’s one thing to be uncomfortable in a workspace. But there are some people who have gone to lengths to let me know that I’m unwanted.”

Carson Cruse, a sophomore and president of the university’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, believes the termination is a “clear attack” on diversity, equity, and inclusion at the university, according to the student paper.

“Our education is not negotiable,” Loyola’s NAACP chapter secretary and junior psychology major Akilah Toney said. “We won’t take no for an answer because we need an African-American studies department in a majority Black city.”

Professor Mark Yakich, who supports the students as they fight for Heath, said there were alleged student complaints but never any evidence, not even during an “informal formal” meeting the dean called to discuss Heath’s job performance.

Yakich, who has been teaching at the university for 16 years, voted for the university to renew Heath’s contract and signed the petition to keep him on staff.