By Madelyn Stone, News Staff

Each year, upwards of 200 students fill a lecture hall for Professor Denise Horn’s introduction to international affairs course. Dozens circle back to apply for the Dialogue of Civilizations trip she leads to Bali, Indonesia focused on social entrepreneurship. She teaches her students global awareness, grassroots organization and social activism – lessons they’re not afraid to put into action.

When Horn’s application for tenure stalled in the office of Provost Stephen Director after gliding through the approval process of the unit committee, department chair and college dean, students rallied on her behalf. Since the provost’s decision to deny Horn tenure, which some termed “inexplicable” and “an injustice,” became public, no official statement has been released by the office of the president, provost or College of Social Sciences and Humanities dean.

Confusion over the provost’s determination fueled the response of 2013 graduate Frank Marino, an international affairs and human services major, who created an online petition that garnered around 1,000 signatures within a day.

“I was very shocked when I found out she was denied tenure,” Marino said. “I knew that other people who have crossed paths with Professor Horn would also have similar reactions, so I just wanted to spread the word about Professor Horn’s situation but then also give people a clear outlet that they could have an impact and have their voice heard.”

He also arranged a “virtual day of action,” taking to Facebook to urge students, alumni and parents to support Horn by posting on the Northeastern Facebook page and tweeting at President Joseph E. Aoun. Dozens of students followed his lead, including sophomore international affairs major Katie Braggins.

“I felt I wanted to do more and it felt like the most direct way to talk to the president,” she said. “I also emailed the office of the president and tweeted at him and kind of contacted him in any way just because she is an amazing professor and it’s important that whatever decision he does make that he’s well-informed on what the student body believes.”

In a process as long, convoluted and confidential as university tenure procedures tend to be, student input often plays a marginal role, if any, in the ultimate decision, Harvard professor Cathy A. Trower said.

Trower is Research Director at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and has focused much of her research on tenure systems and faculty employment trends.

“It’s not uncommon for students to petition, write letters, try to make their voices heard in an effort to overturn such a decision,” she said. “However, that’s not going to be what overturns such a decision.”

Granting professors tenure essentially means taking them on for life, Trower explained – a decision no institution takes lightly. And while student opinions matter, she said, “generally students don’t have a strong say in tenure decisions. And the reason is that students are there for a few years but faculty will be there forever, basically. So while a professor might be very popular with students at a given point in time, the students graduate and move on.”

Students were not the only ones to speak out in support of Horn. Backing also came from parents of students such as Braggins, as well as alumni and Northeastern faculty.

Sociology professor Daniel Faber addressed the president in a Facebook post:  “Dr. Horn is an outstanding scholar (two well-received books), a fantastic teacher that is one of the best and most sought after instructors in the entire university, and the key faculty member in International Affairs and proposed M.A. in globalization studies. To deny tenure to a candidate with two books is almost unheard of, and quite disturbing to both tenured and non-tenured faculty.”

Others sounding off in Horn’s favor included Professors Barry Bluestone and Michael Dukakis. Bluestone said he wrote to Aoun suggesting the president review the case after conversations with many political science faculty members, who share Horn’s so-called tenure home college due to the joint nature of the international affairs program.

“If you deny someone tenure, you lose them – you’re firing them,” Bluestone said. “And [Horn] has played such an important role particularly with her undergraduates and in my opinion, having reviewed her dossier, also has a reasonably good research record, that it would be a terrible shame for the university to lose her services as a faculty member.”

Dukakis, who spoke with Aoun on the subject, expressed similar concerns.

“It’s no secret that a lot of people in the political science department were unhappy about the decision,” he said. “We think she’s a very good teacher. We think she deserves tenure.”

Though Horn did not respond to requests for comment and university officials would not comment on personnel matters or tenure decisions, Bluestone and Marino said they heard the provost’s office had decided to postpone the determination and restart the assessment of Horn’s application next year.

“I would hope that next year, it would almost be pro forma that she would receive tenure,” Bluestone said.