The Point: Reinstate Professor Keith Jones
4/2/2026
The week’s edition was written by The Point committee. As always, The Point represents the views of the authors and is not the official position of the FSU.
Many of you have no doubt seen the FSU petition demanding that Provost Berger reverse the decision to terminate Professor Keith Jones and reinstate him immediately. The petition has received an astounding 1600+ signatures so far and Keith’s case is making its way through the relevant state agencies—MCAD (Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination) and DLR (Department of Labor Relations).
We are not writing today to revisit the “why” and “how” of Professor Jones’s termination—the current issue of our student newspaper (see below) does a more than adequate job of laying out the basic contours of the case. We would like to emphasize that it is really strange that (a) no other faculty member has been denied continuing appointment in the past five years and (b) the one who is getting terminated happens to be an outspoken member/defender of both the FSU and the Africana Studies Department.
It doesn’t take much to connect the dots, a fact made evident by the Administration’s flimsy explanation for termination. The recent Mass Media article looks at this history more in depth and does an especially good job of underlining that Keith’s activism very much dovetails with the national Black Lives Matter protests that emerged in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and others. More locally, we will just note that Keith’s sometimes provocative activism also forms an almost perfect Venn Diagram with the tenure of Provost Joseph Berger who, coincidentally, is undergoing his own fifth-year review (FSU members have recently received email in connection with this review from Faculty Council).
We are also not going to take up any time or space today recounting Keith Jones’s impressive record of service to UMass Boston. There is no need. Our own Administration uplifted this when they bestowed upon him the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service at commencement in 2022. The toxic irony of this one-two punch—bestowing the university’s highest honor and then pulling the plug on Keith Jones’ career here—would be comical if it did not have such devastating real-world effects. The consequences for Keith Jones’ students, his colleagues, and his own Boston-residing family will be profound.
We write today because as colleagues, educators and union members, we find it deeply troubling that a public university that purports to value students is so callously terminating one of the most compelling and effective teachers at UMass Boston. Those of us from disciplines related to Africana Studies have known about Keith’s exceptional teaching for years – we hear from students who consistently (and without provocation) eagerly recount the positive, life-changing impact he has had not only on their education, but on their lives.
We were reminded of this recently by a series of letters from Keith’s students that appeared in the Mass Media, students who noted how his teaching “was truly a transformative experience.” “Professor Jones reshaped the way I think, question, and understand the world.” His “influence changed the trajectory of my life.” “I cannot think of another professor who better embodies the mission of UMass Boston.” “Not only did Professor Jones teach…he fostered within in me a deeper sense of what it means to be a member of our community.” And so on (see many other letters here).
Keith is a teacher and colleague that UMass Boston cannot afford to lose, and the fact that we are close to doing so reflects what is now a long history of poor decisions by the current “antiracist and health-promoting” administration – this time at the expense of both a faculty member, whose job and passion are being taken from him, and the students whose education will be inevitably diminished.
The FSU will deliver the petition and meet with the Provost. The Faculty Council is also taking up this urgent matter. We encourage you, by signing the petition or otherwise contacting upper administration, to urge the Provost to reverse this monumentally unconscionable decision. And, if our collective efforts do not succeed in the short term, please be prepared (and stay tuned) for upcoming campus actions to demand Professor Jones’s reinstatement. This injustice needs to be reversed.
The committee for this year’s The Point currently includes Jessica Holden, Healey Library; Nick Juravich, History; Jeff Melnick, American Studies; and Steve Striffler, Labor Studies. If you want to write an edition of The Point, or if you just have an idea, please write us at fsu@umb.edu