THE MORE I hear about Government Prof. James Sofka's peremptory dismissal from the government department, the more confused I become. The diligent front-page treatment of the issue ("Department woes may move Sofka," April 18) raises more questions than she answers. This is not the reporter's fault. Despite the reporter's best efforts, she couldn't find anyone willing to go on record explaining: Why now? Why Sofka? And where is Government and Foreign Affairs Prof. Larry J. Sabato?
Why now? Sofka began lecturing in 1995; since 1998 he's had a full class schedule. His teaching earns him consistently high marks (the most recent statistics show that students rate his classes a 4.9 out of a possible 5) and his lectures on International Law and International Organization fill up within two days of registration. Just this fall, he replaced Sabato as Director of Undergraduate Studies, advised 87 students and headed up the honors program. In short, three months ago James Sofka was one of the Department's best known, in-demand professors. What happened?
The article suggests the department couldn't afford to pay him. Nonsense. Sofka's salary is $43,800, of which the department contributes just $21,900. That's pocket change at a place like this. Moreover, Sofka has been on the way out for months, since long before the department began to assemble next year's budget. Only on this coming Monday will the acting Government Chair Jeffrey Legro meet with Melvyn Leffler, Dean of the College, to present his spending requests. Sofka, of course, will not be one of them. And not a single administrator or faculty member is willing to explain why the man would be any less wonderful in the fall of 2001 than he was in the fall of 2000.
Why Sofka? Leffler has suggested - in the article - that Sofka cannot remain at the University because he earned his Ph.D. here and he is neither tenured nor on a tenure track. Neither explanation can survive even a cursory survey of the current University faculty. Try this: log on to a few departmental Web sites, and see how many professors are described as "adjunct," "general," "visiting" or "lecturers" - short-hand for "not tenured." See for yourself how many earned their Ph.D.s right here.
Start with the government department and you'll find that Prof. Vivian Thomson earned a U.Va. degree in 1997. No one, to my knowledge, has suggested that Thomson should leave the University simply because her Ph.D. thesis rests on the first floor of Alderman.
Look up other departments: English employs 13 "lecturers," and at least four of them hold advanced degrees from the University; religious studies employs three non-tenure track professors and four University Ph.Ds; sociology has three "general faculty," and one U.Va. Ph.D; ten "visiting and adjunct" faculty teach Economics courses.
Many of these men and women, like Sofka, hold dual appointments. Professor Thomson, for example, divides her time between government and environmental science. Assistant Dean Bill Wilson lectures in religious studies and advises in Garrett Hall. Nancy Gansneder teaches sociology courses while running the University Internship Program. And Sofka is a Resident Scholar in Sabato's Center for Governmental Studies. Far from dispelling my confusion, these comparisons lead to the greatest mystery of all: Where is Larry J.?
Never known to shy from a spotlight, Sabato has been strangely coy regarding the shabby treatment of his Resident Scholar. Here Sabato stands to lose a trusted employee, and yet not one quote from him appears in Bye's article. Why? According to a government interdepartment e-mail Legro circulated in July, Sofka's dual appointment was negotiated and included in Sabato's contract. That blockbuster deal, signed by the president and the provost last spring, more than doubled Sabato's salary - from $91,500 to a cool $200,000 - and promoted him to University Professor.
Having already won so much, is Sabato reluctant to go to bat again on Sofka's behalf? Does he fear that standing up for justice (and for contractual obligations) would hurt his Center in the next round of budget battles? All we know for sure, it seems, is that in the government department politics is not such "a good thing" after all.
Considering the time and devotion that Sofka has lavished on this University, his backhand dismissal is nothing short of criminal. But in politics, there are worse things than crimes; there are mistakes. Letting Sofka go is a mistake of the highest magnitude.
On the one hand, this decision is a slap in the face to undergraduates. We stand to lose one of the most outgoing, accessible and trusted professors on Grounds. And on the other hand, what does the University administration stand to gain? What are the government department, Melvyn Leffler and Sabato after? A fistful of dollars? The chance to hire someone with an outside Ph.D? A new home for the Center? Their gains don't cover our losses on this deal. Something doesn't add up. Either Sofka is the victim of staggering incompetence, or else the whole story has yet to be told.
(Steven Shepard is a fourth year College student. He is in the government honors program.)
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