Mystery surrounds non-renewal of star professors’ contracts in DePaul University’s Digital Cinema program
Oscar-winning sound editor Dave Stone and two-time Emmy-winning sound and dialogue editor Lou Kleinman spent the DePaul University spring break reeling from the surprise news that they should look for new employment after being informed their contracts to teach the school’s Digital Cinema program were not going to be renewed.
David E. Stone and Lou Kleinman
Both professors were also relieved of their teaching duties for the remainder of the academic year, leaving the fledgling program’s 350+ students wondering who will fill their place for the spring semester.
The decision will come as a surprise to many, as Stone and Kleinman’s classes had repeatedly scored highly in student evaluations, and DePaul had heavily recruited the pair for their Hollywood experience and A-list status.
DePaul declined to comment on the individual cases, but informed ReelChicago that the college “has two types of faculty – a full-time, permanent core faculty with terminal degrees that are tenured or on a tenure-track, and a one-year, non-tenure track faculty corps that is temporary. This model enables DePaul to be responsive to developing pedagogical and curricular needs and tap into the wealth of top professional expertise available in a particular field.”
CTI Dean David Miller
Kleinman and Stone were first informed their contracts would not be renewed near the end of the Winter Quarter by David Miller, Dean of the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI). They received official written notice on March 20th. The school closed for spring break the following day.
Stone and Kleinman were on rolling one-year contracts, but the timing of the decision and the short notice given to find other positions are unusual for the academic community. As an Oscar-winner (Best Sound Effects Editing for ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’), Stone in particular was regularly touted in the program’s promotional materials, and it remains to be seen whether replacements will be able to match his experience and quality.
David Stone had relocated his family from LA specifically to teach at the program after a hugely successful career in Hollywood, with credits including ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ & ‘Ocean’s Twelve’, ‘Training Day’, ‘Speed’, ‘Reservoir Dogs’, ‘Batman Returns’, ‘Top Gun’, ‘Predator’ and many more spanning 30 years. Kleinman’s credits include ‘Braveheart’, ‘Heat’, ‘The Bourne Identity’ and ‘Gladiator’.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that Stone’s wife, celebrated foley artist Vanessa Ament (‘Die Hard’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’), was released by the program in similarly abrupt fashion in 2007 – also despite scoring highly on student approval ratings. At the time students petitioned unsuccessfully for her reinstatement, and rumors of a student-led petition against Stone and Kleinman’s dismissals have already begun circulating the campus.
Matt Irvine
The Digital Cinema program at DePaul was established in 2004 with the goal of becoming “the number one cinema/television/computer gaming program in the Midwest… then number one in the nation”, according to the program’s director Matthew Irvine. It rapidly grew into the most popular undergraduate major in DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems.
It remains to be seen whether the uncertainty over the release of two of the school’s most professionally successful and popular tutors will damage the credibility of the program, into which the university has already invested over $3million in funding.
—-
A version of this article originally appeared on Reelchicago.com on 04/02/08
The article generated a record amount of page hits and feedback as DePaul students expressed their dismay at the firings.
