Death, disaster strike University of Idaho campus

Towards the end of the month of January, there had been a few incidents that went down at University of Idaho involving professors. These events had been affecting students and their education in a less than desirable way, and may affect future students from LHS that plan on going to UI due to new teachers having to get used to things.

First, on the afternoon of Jan. 30, award-winning chemistry professor Tom Bitterwolf passed away on campus. According to dnews.com, EMS personnel found him in Malcolm Renfrew Hall and attempted to revive him, but they were unsuccessful. Bitterwolf died from natural causes related to age.

Before arriving at UI, Bitterwolf served in the Navy and taught at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, according to a statement from UI President Chuck Staben at dailyevergreen.com. The UI professor had been a member of the UI department since 1988, and his students have stated that he was known as a happy, caring instructor who worked hard to help his students and the community. He was highly involved with the local Boy Scouts, served as treasurer on the board of directors for the Moscow Food Co-op, and won an award for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014.

Also on Jan. 30, a UI journalism professor, Denise Bennett, was accused of using methamphetamine, which resulted in the university banning her from the Moscow campus. The university’s department sent a text message alert to students stating [sic]: “There has been recent admittance to police of meth use and access to firearms, if Denise Bennett is seen on campus, call 911.”

Reported in spokesman.com, UI spokeswoman Jodi Walker said the allegation of meth use came from a November police report that school officials had recently discovered. But Walker refused to provide a copy of the report to the media. The Argonaut, the UI student newspaper, stated that Bennett had also been a victim of domestic abuse from her husband, Bradley Janssen. Bennett supposedly hid her husband’s guns from him, which could have led to the firearms accusation. After all of this came to light on Nov. 4, she agreed to talk to a domestic violence specialist, according to the Argonaut.

Bennett worked at UI since 2006, and UI reported recent issues with her behavior, such as yelling at students and administrators. She admitted to these things, but she said it was to get their attention. At spokesman.com, Staben said that it wasn’t behavior that he condoned.

According to insidehighered.com, Bennett believes that the university is taking actions against her due to her speaking out about what she considers as a misuse of grant funds. She learned that $451 went unspent from a grant and she had hoped they funds could support a documentary about LGBTQ people in Idaho. Because of this information, she sent an email to administration to express her disappointment with the handling of grant funds and with what she saw as the underfunding and lack of maintenance at the Radio-TV Center on the UI campus. After Bennett sent this email Jan. 24, Staben placed her on administrative leave the same day.

With these events going down in the middle of a school year, it has been detrimental to students and their education. UI student Ryan Benson said to the Spokesman Review that the university had “grossly mishandled” Bennett’s suspension. Many students were with #ReinstateDenise, and more than 800 people signed a Change.org petition with the title “Reinstate Denise Bennett.” There had even been a protest scheduled for Jan. 30 in support of Bennett, but it got canceled due to the involvement of law enforcement, according to spokesman.com.

With 2019 off to an interesting start for the University of Idaho, fingers are crossed that all the students that were affected by these events will be back on track in their education.