In the July 20, 2018, Chronicle, a story appeared titled “His University Asked Him to Build and Emoji-Themed Parade Float. Then It Fired Him.” The story is behind a paywall, but it begins as follows:
Jack Sheffler had never built a parade float.
It would be a pain. There would be trips to another town for materials, followed by the strapping down of wires and the stringing up of lights. And he’d have to do it all in the afternoons or on the weekends — when he wasn’t on the job as chairman of the fine-arts department at Concord University, a public institution in West Virginia.
But his university wanted him to do it. In fact, a dean told him it was important to Concord’s president, Kendra Boggess, that it be done. So Sheffler, who had just been promoted to full professor, got it done.
The story is long and complicated, and the professor does not appear to be blameless. But should he have lost his job over a volunteer project? Indeed, no good deed goes unpunished.
Yet another reason to say no to extraneous project….
If you have a subscription to The Chronical of Higher Education, the story is available here: https://www.chronicle.com/article/His-University-Asked-Him-to/243886