The author of this article was fired from their position as Faculty Council President at South Florida State College after teaching a short story not included in the textbook. No formal complaint was made against the author, but they were told that a staff member had made a "verbal complaint" about the story. The president of the college, Fred Hawkins, allegedly intervened and decided not to renew the author's contract, despite the fact that instructors are permitted to use outside resources. This marked the end of the author's five-year contract, which they left a secure position at Ithaca College to join South Florida State College in 2023.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
The letter, dated February 12, on South Florida State College letterhead and hand delivered by the Director of Human Resources, contained four sentences.
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letter → date → sentences
I would be placed on administrative leave with pay till the end of my contract.
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I → place → contract
The contract would not be renewed.
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contract → renew → ?
I would be relieved of all teaching duties immediately.
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I → relieve → duties
A concluding sentence offered contact information if I had any questions.
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I → conclude → questions
I had many.
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I → have → many
My chair and dean—who had vouched for me in the preceding days—seemed in a state of shock.
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who → vouch → shock
I repeatedly asked the HR director for the complaint.
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I → ask → complaint
A staff member, I was told, had made a “verbal complaint.”
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I → tell → complaint
When I pressed further, demanded to know what I had done wrong, the HR director said: “You taught a story that wasn’t in the textbook.”
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that → press → textbook
My chair immediately pointed out that instructors are permitted to use outside resources.
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instructors → point → resources
The response: “The president has the final say.”
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president → have → say
The HR director told me he would need my office keys.
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he → tell → keys
My email accounts would be locked.
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accounts → lock → ?
When he escorted me to collect my belongings, he seemed unexpectedly emotional.
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he → escort → belongings
I had taught his daughter.
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I → teach → daughter
Somehow I drove home.
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I → drive → ?
My parents were arriving the next day, and I wasn’t sure I could manage a brave face for them.
uncertain
I → arrive → them
Earlier that year, I had been asked by the vice president of the college to serve as Faculty Council President for the upcoming academic year.
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I → ask → year
I’ve spent most of my career teaching at small, private liberal arts schools in Upstate New York.
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I → spend → York
I made the decision to move to South Florida in 2023, to be closer to my parents who are now in their eighties.
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who → make → eighties
I left a secure position at Ithaca College—my contract had just been renewed for five more years—to come and work at a public college whose stated values I shared: “the free exchange of ideas in an environment that embraces honesty, fairness, personal responsibility, and ethical leadership.”
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that → leave → honesty
I moved here in good faith, with an open heart and mind, and the hope for better things.
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I → move → things
My interview process was memorably warm, without the guile and pretension that can sometimes typify academia.
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that → typify → academia
Fred Hawkins had not yet arrived as president.
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Hawkins → arrive → president
So, in my final interview, when the vice president told me, “We’re a community; we’re a family and we take care of each other,” I believed it.
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I → tell → it
Perhaps that is why the wound feels so deep.
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wound → feel → ?
My present and future had been summarily snatched.
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present → snatch → ?
By one college president with no professional experience in education, who had never set foot in my classroom.
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who → set → classroom
The triggering story was “Bettering Myself” by award-winning writer Ottessa Moshfegh, a story I have taught for over a decade, including the six semesters at SFSC leading up to my removal in February 2026.
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I → trigger → February
The narrative—with its unwholesome references to sex, drugs, and alcohol—is a kind of Picasso-esque portrait that asks the reader if there is any story value to be found in the unvarnished descent of a character to even further disrepair than the opening sequences suggest.
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sequences → ask → disrepair
We start with a list of students’ unprocessed limbic brain reactions (“Crazy,” “Real,” “Vulgar,” “TMI,” “Icky,” “Why? Why?”) and then tunnel to deeper truths: Will the story ultimately deliver on the promise of its title?
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story → start → title
How does the wayward first-person voice compare with morally compromised male narrators in more canonical examples?
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voice → compare → examples
Can literature ask challenging questions without yielding comfortable answers?
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literature → ask → answers
I have great respect for my students as a whole and, in particular, their proven abilities to rise to the occasion of learning from stories that may challenge them beyond the scope of their own experience.
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that → have → experience
My students at South Florida State College consistently did so with curiosity, openness, and laughter and were—without parallel—the best part of my job.
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students → do → job
Having difficult conversations in the classroom is one way not to be undone by them outside those walls.
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Having → have → walls
I was not asking my students to like the story.
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I → ask → story
Literature that never unsettles us may be comfortable, but incomplete—antiseptically free of debate, friction, and discovery.
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that → unsettle → debate
But I found not everyone agrees.
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everyone → find → ?
…and 54 more, not listed.
