You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.
This story originally ran in the Oct. 26, 1984, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.
Despite charges by minority students of prejudicial treatment in the classroom, two MTSU professors say they are not aware of such treatment.
“My roll sheets don’t show race,” W. Daniel Rountree, chairman of the management and marketing department. said Wednesday. “Can they [students] do the work? That’s all I ask.”
Rountree pointed out that, since he took the position of chairman, no one has filed a complaint of racial or sexual discrimination.
“You get students that come in and say that this instructor or that instructor is lousy, but not any charges of discrimination,” Rountree said.
Rountree said that discrimination is a subject that is very close to him because, when he went back to to school to get his doctorate, employers discriminated against his wife when she searched for a job to support the family.
In regard to the number of Black faculty, Rountree said that his department is making special efforts to recruit Black faculty members.
“We are contacting Black graduate schools and Black MTSU graduates in business,” Rountree said.
He pointed out that the qualifications required to teach in the school of business, of which the management and marketing department is a part, require the department to hire only instructors with the proper educational training.
The school of business is accredited by the American Assembly of of Collegiate Schools of Business, according to Rountree. To keep its accreditation, the school must maintain a certain level of instructors with doctoral degrees in the field in which they teach.
The assembly does not put requirements as to the number of minority instructors, which is as it should be, according to Rountree.
Applicants for teaching positions should be judged on their qualifications, not on their race or sex, according to Rountree.
Rountree also pointed out that of the 17 undergraduate student workers in the department, 12 are women and three are Black. A fourth Black applicant was referred to and placed with the finance department.
According to Rountree, he feels he has a good relationship with the minority students in his classes.
Dr. James C. Douthit, a professor in the management and marketing department, also expressed his opinion that he was not aware of discrimination or bigotry in the classroom on the part of of instructors or students.
“I really haven’t heard of anyone being discriminated against in the classroom,” Douthit said.
He did say, however, that some individual instructors may be somewhat bigoted at times but that he felt that was the exception and not the rule.
Douthit also said he he felt the recently settled Tennessee State University suit was being blown out of proportion.
To contact the Sidelines 100 editor, email sidelines100@mtsusidelines.com.
For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, and follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on X and Instagram at @mtsusidelines. Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
