Mike Catangui

The dismissal of a South Dakota State University insect expert who a colleague says refused to change his recommendations on pesticide spraying has prompted a protest from a national group of scholars.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which once imposed a 29-year censure on the South Dakota Board of Regents for a similar faculty firing at SDSU, said Mike Catangui, a tenured professor and Extension Service entomologist, had been dismissed without a hearing.

The organization has called on SDSU President David Chicoine to “promptly restore Professor Catangui to his faculty status” and give him the hearing, before his faculty peers, to which he's entitled.

The incident has raised the prospect of a new censure for South Dakota State – a public "black eye" for the university – and it calls into question the meaning of tenure and academic freedom.

Whether Catangui was fired or suspended pending a hearing wasn’t clear Tuesday. The university administration, Catangui and the faculty union wouldn’t go into details. However, Catangui told AAUP that he had been "dismissed for cause, with cessation of salary, effective June 21, 2010."

‘‘I have no comment other than I’ve been serving the people of South Dakota for almost 20 years to the best of my ability,’’ Catangui said.

The entomologist for the Cooperative Extension Service is the contact for the public’s questions about insects that affect crops, livestock, gardens, buildings and human health. Catangui is probably best known in the community as a frequent panelist on the “Garden Line” television show.



Kantack backs Catangui

The dismissed professor has an ally in another entomologist, his Extension predecessor, Ben Kantack. Kantack says Catangui was let go because he refused to follow regional recommendations on when spraying should be done to kill aphids. The timing and quantities for such spraying can make a major economic difference for producers.

‘‘He was told he would accept the recommendations from these other states, which do not fit South Dakota weather conditions or growing conditions and so forth, which his own research showed do not fit,’’ said Kantack, a retired Extension entomologist at SDSU. ‘‘He was told if he didn’t accept them he would not keep his job.



Data didn’t support it

According to Kantack, Catangui told his department head, Sue Blodgett, that he couldn't in good faith recommend the regional spraying thresholds to South Dakota growers when his personal findings revealed the recommendations were not appropriate here.

Kantack said Blodgett first told Catangui he had to support the regional thresholds shortly after she became head of the Plant Science Department in 2007.

"He said he can't do it if his research shows that (the recommendations) otherwise don't fit South Dakota conditions," Kantack said. ‘‘He has defended the ag interests of South Dakota and saved them a lot of money over the years. He’s being discharged, in my opinion, unjustly.’’



Tenure, academic freedom?

Kantack, a professor emeritus at SDSU, also raised the issues of tenure and academic freedom. If Catangui was told to support something contrary to his research and the interests of local growers, Kantack said, "does academic freedom mean anything at SDSU? And if he can be fired without a hearing, does tenure mean anything?"

Kantack continued: " I think he (Catangui) should be given an award by the soybean growers for protecting them. If we're going to adopt other states' recommendations, who don't know about our conditions, do we need to be spending $10 million a year on an Agricultural Experiment Station?"



SDSU: ‘No comment’

Chicoine wouldn’t commen on Catangui’s dismissal.

‘‘We just don’t talk publicly about personnel matters, either hiring or promoting or in this case other action,’’ Chicoine said.

The AAUP, founded in 1915 to preserve faculty academic freedom and due process, said in a July 8 letter to Chicoine that it understood Catangui was dismissed for ‘‘performance deficiencies’’ and insubordination but didn’t receive a faculty review hearing that is standard for tenured faculty.

The letter from Gregory F. Scholtz, director of the AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance, was copied to a number of university officers. It did lay out several other reasons for the dismissal, which Scholtz stated, “Professor Catangui sharply contests.” The job deficiencies noted included “failing to distribute timely and accurate information to the public,” failing to keep an activity log and inform clerical staff of his whereabouts, failing to maintain normal business hours as directed, and “insubordination in neglecting to follow the directives of his administrative superiors."

‘‘We recognize that faculty members can be dismissed for cause, but we believe when they are dismissed that they’re afforded appropriate procedural protections, and this ain’t it,’’ Scholtz said from AAUP’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C.



1962 censure

AAUP members voted in 1962 to censure the South Dakota Board of Regents for the 1958 dismissal of an agronomy professor who had served 15 years at SDSU. Censure was not lifted until 1991 when the regents adopted policies on tenure and dismissal in agreement with the Council of Higher Education (COHE), the union representing university faculty.

‘‘This is a personnel matter, and while it’s still a personnel matter we really can’t say much about what’s going on,’’ said Bill Adamson, president of the SDSU chapter of Council of Higher Education.

Tom Bare, a colleague of Catangui and former "Garden Line" host, was also a COHE president during his years at State. He is concerned about the prospect of SDSU being censured again.

"That would be a grave situation," Bare said. "If a university is censured, it has a heck of a time getting out from under it."

Bare, who recalls that there were actually two dismissals involved in the 1962 censure, said that when he was considering coming to SDSU other colleagues warned him against accepting a post here, specifically because of the AAUP action. "It means they don't treat their faculty well," he was told.

Bare said he also has serious concerns about Catangui's dismissal and what it means for academic freedom at SDSU.

– From an AP report by Wayne Ortman with additional reporting by Ken Curley of The Brookings Register