ST. LOUIS 鈥 One of the city鈥檚 top elected officials won鈥檛 return to Washington University as an adjunct professor after the school told her they鈥檙e 鈥渁voiding鈥 hiring adjunct faculty who hold elected positions.
Board of Aldermen President Megan Green has served on the board since 2014 and has taught at WashU since 2019. The university鈥檚 decision comes nearly six months after Green was suspended for her involvement in a pro-Palestine protest on campus.
鈥淚t feels very targeted,鈥 Green said. 鈥淭here are others in elected offices who hold positions at the university. They just don鈥檛 happen to be adjuncts.鈥
Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communications Julie Flory said hiring decisions are made at the school level.
鈥淭he Brown School has recently revised its guidelines regarding current office-holders serving in adjunct faculty roles,鈥 Flory wrote in an email to the Post-Dispatch. 鈥淎ppointments are made at the discretion of the dean.鈥
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Green teaches a spring-semester course on writing legislation. When Green recently asked WashU鈥檚 Brown School about next semester, Assistant Dean for Social Policy Anna Shabsin said that a different adjunct would teach it.
鈥淭here are many reasons for this, including our Government Affairs office鈥檚 instructions to avoid hiring adjunct faculty who are currently serving in an elected capacity,鈥 Shabsin said.
Nine university employees, including Green, were suspended after an April 27 protest demanded WashU to 鈥渄ivest from genocide鈥 by banning Boeing from recruitment events, cutting ties with 鈥渨ar profiteers鈥 and 鈥渁ll companies and institutions profiting from Israeli occupation in Palestine,鈥 according to one of five demands posted by the .
Green is not the only WashU professor who holds an elected position.
City of Clayton Alderman Gary Feder, an , teaches one-week, one-credit classes between semesters.
Feder said Tuesday the university had not informed him he could no longer teach because of his elected position. Feder, however, works in the School of Law, which is separate from Green鈥檚 school.
鈥淭his is usually the time of the year where they would call me and say, 鈥楧o you want to come back and do the one-week class?鈥欌 Feder said. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 heard from them, but I certainly haven鈥檛 heard them suggesting they don鈥檛 want me to come back.鈥
Green was suspended two days after the April 27 protest. In late June, she and the other suspended employees were told the university had completed their investigation of the protest and lifted their suspensions.
In a June 24 email, Provost Beverly Wendland alleged Green refused to comply with multiple police orders to leave campus, interfered with police efforts to secure the campus, and entered a locked building after being told to leave.
In a lengthy rebuttal to Wendland, Green wrote she had only heard police order those unaffiliated with the university to leave, and she entered an unlocked building to use a bathroom. As far as the alleged interference with police work, Green said she had approached the police line to speak with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Rob Wild. Students had asked her to act as an intermediary with the administration.
鈥淚 was threatened with arrest for trying to de-escalate,鈥 Green told Wendland. 鈥淭his made me increasingly concerned for the safety and well-being of our students as the police continued to take a violent and aggressive stance toward our students.鈥
WashU originally accused Green of using her campus card access to allow unauthorized people to enter campus buildings. That accusation was not corroborated, Wendland wrote.
Conflict over the April 27 protest is still far from over for many others involved.
An ad-hoc committee of trustees tasked with reviewing the protest has tapped a law firm to handle the review instead. That firm has requested to interview students, though some say they will not participate.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 really feel comfortable speaking to anyone hired by the university, especially related to this,鈥 said former graduate student Valencia Alvarez, who was arrested on April 27.
Michael Allen, a senior lecturer at WashU who left in May for a post in West Virginia, said the faculty senate chair asked faculty last week if they would speak with the firm. All but one of the suspended faculty members declined, Allen said.
鈥淗aving the investigation conducted by a law firm representing the university us as far from open and objective as I can imagine,鈥 Allen said.
This story was updated after publication with comment from Julie Flory.