Chandler to Stay at Kent State After Newspaper Criticism

A Southern controversy is preventing one top-level administrator at from taking a job as provost for Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

Tim Chandler, senior associate provost at Kent State, told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon that he would not be taking the job as provost for Kennesaw State following criticism from a number of newspapers in the Kennesaw, GA, area over an academic paper Chandler published 13 years ago.

Chandler had previously accepted the job but had "withdrawn his acceptance of the position" Thursday, according to a statement released by Kennesaw State.

One paper in particular, the Marietta Daily Journal, published an editorial March 5 criticizing the paper Chandler co-authored and published in the Journal of Higher Education. The newspaper followed that piece up with several more articles implying Chandler was a "Marxist" and un-American for the views he expressed in the Higher Education article.

Chandler said Thursday that he wrote the piece as a look at scholarship and research at American universities and the socioeconomic system within which universities are embedded.

"Some of the tone of the paper I think could be argued a little political," Chandler said. "Remember, this was pre 9/11, and I think sensitivities were a little different then. I think post-9/11 it might be considered a little differently.

"I think they thought this was an advocacy piece," he said. "It was a critical-analysis paper."

Several news outlets picked up on the Marietta Daily Journal's reporting on Chandler, including the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, which chronicled the story in a feature by Political Insider columnist Jim Galloway.

Chandler said he was shocked and surprised to see the newspaper's critical editorials on a paper he published in 1998. He decided this week to withdraw his acceptance of the provost position at Kennesaw State.

Kent State University Provost Bob Frank called the attacks in the media on Chandler's character "baseless and unfounded."

"Though Dr. Chandler’s decision to stay at Kent State is very positive for us, it comes after a very stressful and difficult series of weeks for his family,” Frank said. “In this case, the loss of Kennesaw State is an enormous gain for Kent State University.”