Bonnie Tyler

Sean and I recently found out that one of our favorite teachers in college was denied tenure.

Bonnie Tyler is a professor who takes pride in her research and was one of the key people in our 2003 graduating class that helped us develop a comodory among us chemical engineers that you often don't see.

What made us upset over the matter was the poor excuse the dean gave to deny it. Not enough funding. Her funding had only gone down 7% and that can be attributed to the fact that most governemnt funding agencies have been funding less and less. So who is to blame?

As many know the tenure process is a long one and requires many committee votes. She was given an affirmative vote for both undergraduate and graduate committees. She was given an affirmative from the faculty in chemical engineering and a committe of 13 professors from various departments at the University of Utah gave her a vote of 12 to 1 in the affirmative.

The big kicker... The Vice President has the final say and he voted in favor of the Dean. He choose not to listen to 4 committees who opinion should have the most impact. So why we ask? Well we are trying to find out and that requires and appeal. This is a person's future as well as the departments future. Lets not let it be tainted by a bad decision. Keep in mind there is only one women faculty member in the chemical engineering department!!!!!

As alumni we have tried to contact all who have benefited from her over the past 5 years she has been there. If you are reading this please send a message to the appeal committee or the chair himself. smith@crsim.utah.edu. It only needs to be brief and to the point. Let your almuni voices be heard. Lets show that we care about what happens to the department, as it was the place that got us where we are today.