This summer, the College declined to hire University of Illinois Chicago criminology, law and justice professor Nicole Nguyen as a tenured geography professor, despite unanimous support from the department, according to an email statement from Nguyen. The decision sparked controversy among academics and students at institutions worldwide.
On Sept. 3, a group of more than 330 academics, students and other supporters sent a letter to the College’s senior administration. In the letter, signatories accused the College of rejecting Nguyen’s appointment because of her scholarship’s progressive “content” — including criticism of the War on Terror — and called for a “fair and impartial review” of her case, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Dartmouth.
The letter — noting that Nguyen also publicly supported pro-Palestinian student protesters — further accused the College of “hostile and intimidating behavior towards those who express solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians.”
“The denial of Dr. Nguyen’s appointment cannot be understood outside of the ongoing suppression of academic freedom, freedom of assembly and peaceful protest, and the silencing of those who support the human rights of Palestinians,” the letter wrote.
College spokesperson Jana Barnello declined to comment on Nguyen’s case and directed The Dartmouth to a previously published statement from Dean of the Faculty Elizabeth Smith about the tenure process.
“The strength of the tenure decision process lies in a system of layered review that incorporates multiple levels of internal and external evaluation assuring a thoroughly considered outcome,” Smith wrote. “Tenured faculty members oversee the tenure decision-making process, and all aspects of the tenure and promotion review procedure are deemed confidential.”
The College’s confidential tenure process is no stranger to controversy. In recent years, Dartmouth has faced criticism for denying tenure to several women of color, including geography professor Patricia Lopez in 2023 and English professor Aimee Bahng in 2016. Moreover, a 2021 report found that faculty departure rates were highest for women and people of color among pre-tenure and tenure-track faculty — though the College has “undertaken a number of efforts” to diversify tenure-track faculty since 2021, according to past reporting.
Geography department chair Xun Shi said he and his colleagues did not know why the College denied Nguyen’s hiring. According to Shi, it is “uncommon” for the Committee Advisory to the President — which consults with the College President on “matters of appointment and promotion … as appropriate,” according to the Office of the President’s webpage — to disagree with unanimous support from a department.
“Personally — and also I think I can speak for the entire department — we were really surprised,” Shi said. “This was really unexpected.”
After the CAP first rejected Nguyen’s application in May 2024, the geography department appealed the decision, Nguyen wrote. According to Nguyen, former associate dean of the social sciences and current government professor John Carey had not held a required one-on-one meeting with her during the application process. Carey did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
An email obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth, sent by Smith to both Nguyen and Shi on Aug. 6, confirmed that the appeal occurred and explained that the procedural error could have impacted the CAP’s decision.
“In accordance with the Appeal Procedure in the [Organization of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Dartmouth College], the Review Committee reviewed [the geography department’s] appeal and determined this procedural error — namely, the lack of a meeting between Professor Nguyen and Associate Dean John Carey before Associate Dean Carey presented Professor Nguyen’s case to the CAP — could reasonably have affected the CAP’s decision,” Smith wrote in the email.
Following the department’s appeal in June 2024, Carey met with Nguyen to review her application, according to Nguyen. After that meeting, the CAP again declined to appoint Nguyen, according to the Aug. 6 email from Smith to Nguyen and Shi. Smith wrote that the CAP reviewed Nguyen’s case “in light of this new information” and “again voted against recommending tenure to the President.”
“The President likewise concurs and will not recommend a tenured appointment to the Board of Trustees,” Smith added in the email. “This decision is final and is not subject to further appeal.”
In addition to the Sept. 3 letter to senior administrators, a group of Nguyen’s former students at UIC wrote letters of support to her, according to Nguyen’s former student and current UIC Ph.D candidate Bianca Schindeler. The students were unaware of the details behind the denial of Nguyen’s hiring but wanted to show support for her, Schindeler said.
“To hear that she had been denied the position was devastating off the bat without the context,” Schindeler said.
Schindeler added that the Sept. 3 letter accusing the College of rejecting Nguyen’s appointment due to her scholarship — which was written by University of Toronto geography professor Emily Gilbert, who also wrote a reference for Nguyen’s application — sparked “a lot more rage in the community, a lot more devastation and concern about what was going on.”
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Gilbert said she believes the denial of Nguyen’s hiring is “a red flag” because Nguyen is “very accomplished.”
“It’s not a case where it’s kind of marginal,” Gilbert said. “She has a very compelling academic record. To me, it seemed like something else was going on.”
Nguyen wrote that she believes the denial of her appointment reflects a “continued marginalization of women of color faculty, devaluation of ethnic studies and repression of pro-Palestinian organizing” by the College.
“Although I looked forward to joining Dartmouth’s faculty, I stand by my rigorous academic record and ongoing commitment to the communities to which I’m accountable,” Nguyen wrote.
Update Appended (Sept. 17, 1:29 p.m.): This article has been updated to clarify the procedural error in Nguyen's review. Carey met with Nguyen as part of the interview process, but he did not hold a separate one-on-one meeting before the CAP's deliberations -- an administrative requirement of the College.
