FORMER QUAKE CENTER DIRECTOR CLAIMS HE WAS UNFAIRLY FIRED

Former science professor David Stewart says he was unfairly terminated last year by the Southeast Missouri State University administration because of his perceived support of Iben Browning's earthquake prediction in 1990.

Stewart, who claims the issue is one of academic freedom, is seeking to be rehired with tenure and back pay.

But university President Kala Stroup said Wednesday that the matter has nothing to do with academic freedom.

The Faculty Senate's grievance committee held a two and a half hour hearing Tuesday on Stewart's appeal.

The committee will make a recommendation to the Faculty Senate, which then will recommend action of the university administrators.

Stewart has threatened to sue if he is not reinstated. "They totally denied my academic freedom," he said Wednesday.

"I made statements about Iben Browning and got caught up in a controversy. They were supposed to defend me, not fire me," he said.

Stewart, who lives in Marble Hill, was an associate professor of geosciences at Southeast and director of the Center for Earthquake Studies when the earthquake controversy erupted four years ago.

He was the sole seismologist to lend credence to Browning's forecast of the possibility of an earthquake occurring on or around Dec. 3, 1990, along the New Madrid Fault.

Stewart maintained that there was some scientific basis to Browning's methodology and that the forecast should be taken seriously.

But many scientists denounced Stewart's statements and said Browning's forecast had no merit. When no earthquake occurred, both Stewart and Browning encountered strong public criticism.

On Dec. 11, 1990, Stewart resigned as director of the earthquake center but continued to teach at the university.

But in June 1992 he was told he would be fired, effective a year later. Stewart was terminated at the end of the spring semester in May 1993.

The university administration, he said, fired him on the grounds that "my professional performance wasn't good enough."

But Stewart said the decision was really prompted by the earthquake controversy.

"They made a decision to fire me in 1990, and then they just played their political cards out so they could do it in a way that would look less like a violation of my academic freedom," said Stewart.

Stroup, however, said: "Academic freedom issues played no role in the decision of the university not to grant a contract to Dr. Stewart after the 1992-93 academic year.

"We believe the established faculty evaluation procedures were followed to the letter in making that decision," she said in a prepared statement.

Stroup said Stewart began his employment at Southeast in January 1988 in a part-time, non-faculty position as director of the Center for Earthquake Studies. Eventually, he also taught part-time from 1988 to 1990.

In August 1990, at his request, Stewart began his first year as a full-time, probationary faculty member, Stroup said.

Renewal contracts for probationary faculty are awarded on a year-to-year basis, she said. Tenure is normally granted after a full probationary period of six years, she pointed out.

After a comprehensive evaluation in 1992 by his department chairman, Stewart was advised that he was not making "satisfactory professional growth" and offered a one-year, non-renewable appointment for the 1992-93 academic year, Stroup said

"A majority of the faculty in his department concurred in that recommendation," she said.

But Stewart and geosciences professor Ray Knox maintained that the department's faculty members as a whole didn't support the dismissal move.

"The department chairman (Nicholas Tibbs) wanted him out," Knox said.

Stewart said that university officials initially encouraged him to talk to the news media about Browning's earthquake forecast, but later backed away from supporting him when public criticism surfaced.

As early as Oct. 21, 1990, Stewart said, Tibbs "threatened the possibility of my being removed as director of the earthquake center" and ultimately even terminated over the earthquake controversy.

Tibbs declined to comment Wednesday, saying it was a personnel matter.

Stewart said he appealed several times before he was granted a hearing.

The hearing was only arranged after Stroup was contacted last fall by an official of the American Association of University Professors, who questioned why Stewart was being denied due process, Stewart said.

Four former and current department colleagues, including Knox, and a student testified in Stewart's behalf at the hearing. Also testifying was Terry Sutton, Faculty Senate chairman. Sutton discussed the issue of academic freedom.

Knox said Wednesday that Stewart "came dangerously close" to endorsing Browning. "I cringed at some of the things he said," Knox added.

But Knox maintained that Stewart should have the academic freedom to speak his mind.