Six recently fired faculty members from the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) at Virginia State University have launched a petition demanding their reinstatement, claiming they were wrongfully terminated without cause.
According to the petition, Dr. Harbans L. Bhardwaj, Dr. Adnan Beker Yousuf, Dr. Vitalis W. Temu, Dr. Maru K. Kering, Dr. Toktam Taghavi, and Dr. Molla Fentie Mengist were called into individual meetings regarding ARS operations on December 16. They were all told their research programs were being sunset and their employment was ending immediately. They were then pressured to sign severance agreements on the spot and warned that refusal to immediately sign would mean forfeiting any severance. When the six professors refused to sign, they were escorted off campus by university police, required to surrender their IDs, keys, and equipment, and issued trespass warnings.
These six faculty members include five tenured professors and one tenure-track assistant professor. After their termination, they were replaced with junior research scientists who were assigned immediate leadership positions, according to the petition.
“The harm is immediate and severe,” the petition reads. “Collectively, [these faculty members] represent decades of service to VSU, including more than 30 years in some cases, and their work supports applied agricultural research, student mentorship, and community-serving programs central to VSU’s land grant mission. Locking researchers out of labs, offices, and data disrupts ongoing projects and collaborations, jeopardizes grant obligations, harms students and partners, and inflicts serious reputational damages.”
The statement continues, “The university’s refusal to follow its own procedures is a deliberate denial of due process. If this is allowed to stand, tenure is meaningless at VSU, and it tells every faculty member that job security can be destroyed without cause, without transparency, without governance, and without a hearing.”
Addressed to the VSU board of trustees, VSU President Makola M. Abdullah, and Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger and sponsored by the American Association of University Professors, the petition calls for the professors’ reinstatement, as well as the release of documentation and decision trail behind their removal.
