Haki Madhubuti Resigns As Professor, Leaves CSU

By Soyoung Kwak in News on Apr 3, 2010 4:15PM

After teaching at Chicago State University for 26 years, Haki Madhubuti decided to resign as a professor on Friday. Madhubuti, a celebrated poet who has founded Third World Press and oversees three charter schools and a private school in Chicago, stated that the primary reason for his resignation was due to the strained relationship between him and the president of CSU, Wayne Watson. Madhubuti had said in his remarks at the annual Gwendolyn Brooks Conference for Black Literature and Creative Writing on Friday that he had no choice but to leave and was 'forced out" of his position at CSU:

"Madhubuti said Watson demanded he teach four courses a semester -- contrary to his contract -- removed him from the paid staff of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center he founded, and reduced him to volunteer status with the master's program in creative writing that he co-founded."

Watson has stated that he simply wanted Madhubuti to devote more time to actually teaching students and that the decision to resign was Madhubuti's own, denying that he made Madhubuti leave his post at CSU. Regardless, it is a huge loss for the creative writing program at CSU. The relationship between Madhubuti and Watson did not start off as a good one, as Madhubuti wrote an open letter criticizing and questioning the way Watson was selected as the new president of CSU last summer.