THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012
PAGE 3B
Paid Advertisement through the KU Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Congratulations!
Assistant Professor Albert Romkes
Voted the 2012 Most Outstanding Faculty Member for KU's Mechanical Engineering Department
We, the Students and Alumni of KU's Mechanical Engineering Department, wish to acknowledge Professor Albert Romkes' superior skills as a Researcher and Teacher and congratulate him on winning this most well deserved award. With 18 major publications, $670,000 in sponsored research, multiple invited international lectures and the unanimous support of his School's Promotion and Tenure committee, his Research record is truly remarkable. Our independent research shows that it far exceeds norms across the university in several ways and eclipses a number of faculty
members in his own department who have just recently been granted tenure. We are impressed by his work on new materials for reducing jet fuel consumption. This is currently at the heart of a $387 million dollar effort being patented and proposed by KU to the US Air Force and is being actively pursued by multiple aircraft manufacturers. As the only computational mechanician in the US who has ever analyzed such materials, he is truly an asset to the University, State and Nation. In addition to a stellar research record, Professor Romkes' teaching style and methods are among the best in the university as evidenced by his 5 major teaching awards and extremely high evaluations. Accordingly, we hereby applaud Professor Romkes' outstanding dedication to his Students and the multiple missions of the University of Kansas over the past seven years. We have checked the public vitae of all faculty members who have recently been tenured across the University and found that his record
is superior to at least nine out of ten of them in terms of sheer numbers, accolades from students and colleagues and internationally recognized magnitude and quality of his work.
Because Professor Romkes has so clearly demonstrated first-order scholarship and a high level of proficiency in research and teaching, we sincerely wish that the Chancellor would reverse her decision not to grant him tenure as it gives the unmistakable appearance that Professor Romkes is being judged by the gender of his partner rather than the content of his character. Just saying that "KU doesn't discriminate" cannot outweigh the facts of this grossly unjust case. We ask the Chancellor and Regents to take note that if this decision is not reversed, She,the Administration as a whole and the individuals populating KU's current Governance
structure will most likely be remembered as one of the most intolerant, capricious and prejudicial in the history of the University of Kansas. Further, it will irreparably damage KU as a whole by painting the university and the School of Engineering in particular as markedly hostile to gay students and faculty. To have not a single openly gay professor in a faculty of more than 100 individuals is the unmistakable fingerprint of institutionalized prejudice itself. This also runs the risk of rippling far into the future, even long after this Chancellor and Provost have moved
long after this Chancellor and Provost have moved on.
If the Chancellor's decision does stick, the Chancellor and Regents should take note that this callous treatment of a stellar researcher and teacher and flippant dismissal of the opinions of the SoE students, faculty and alumni will very adversely affect donations to the Alumni Association as we will encourage multiple generations to withhold their support unless the situation is corrected. We
will not forget it and we will tell everybody what has been done. We ask the Chancellor and Regents to remember from which department multi-million dollar donor and former Chrysler CEO Robert Eaton graduated. Given what we've seen, the Robert Eatons of our generation will most likely keep their checkbooks in their pockets rather than fund the next Eaton Hall. So in short, if this decision stands, it will: 1) cost the University hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct and immediate lost income as Prof. Romkes' considerable contracts will go away,2) jeopardize many tens of millions of dollars in lost
research income by crippling our ability to do critical research supporting the largest and most important manufacturing industry of the state,3) cost jobs for the State and the US by seeding this critical technology and intellectual property elsewhere,4) alienate a generation of students from at least one Department and many from the school and 5)-worst of all-cover the University with the indelible stench of intolerance.
So as this Administration decides whether or not to seriously damage KU, the State and the Nation by supporting an unsupportable miscarriage of due process, we will ask you to join us in wishing Professor Romkes a fond farewell, hearty congratulations and sincere apologies for being so unjustly mistreated on Sunday 6 May, 4:00pm at the picnic area of Potters Lake on the KU Campus.
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