University of Virginia Library

Jordan Delays
Ritter Meeting

Over 50 majors of the Department of
Government and Foreign Affairs discovered
last night that David C. Jordan,
chairman of that department, had postponed
his meeting with them to discuss
the recent denial of tenure to Alan I.
Ritter, an assistant professor in the
department.

Mr. Jordan, who had notified the
Government and Foreign Affairs Association
that he could not attend, did agree,
however, to meet with the students Tuesday,
March 3, at 5 p.m. in 10 Cabell Hall.

The discussion at the meeting centered
around the petition signed by 155 graduate and
undergraduate majors of the department
protesting the denial of tenure.

The petition read in part, that "Mr. Ritter
has consistently demonstrated in his teaching
and scholarship those rare qualities of mind
which distinguish him from many."

The petition continued that "there appears
to have been absolutely no effort to survey
student opinion about Mr. Ritter's teaching
ability ...[and] the denial of promotion to Mr.
Ritter raises grave questions about the lack of
balance in course offerings."

The students also seemed concerned about
more general problems they believed to be
present in the department.

In the petition, they mentioned "the
slipshod way in which graduate instructors are
assigned to teach undergraduate courses [and] the
disregard for undergraduate sentiment as
reflected in the recent decision to maintain
widely criticized comprehensive exams."

In the discussion concerning the petition,
which had been given to Mr. Jordan Tuesday
afternoon, suggestions were made to attempt to
show Mr. Jordan the connection between Mr.
Ritter's denial of promotion and the broader
questions and problems in the department.