Dr. Anita Moss, a human anatomy and physiology professor at the university for 30 years, has not been reappointed after two investigations into her classroom management in the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters.
“Dr. Moss has completed the term of her contract and, based on the university’s teaching needs, it was not renewed,” Joe Izbrand, chief communications officer, said.
FIRST INVESTIGATION
On Nov. 12, 2018, Moss called UTSA police to escort Paige Burgess out of class and a video of the incident was spread on social media and news accounts. The incident led to Moss being relieved of her teaching duties and to an investigation assessing whether Moss’ actions were discriminatory. The investigation found that racial bias was not a factor.
Following the incident, Moss completed classroom management training through UTSA’s Teaching and Learning Services and returned to teaching for the Spring 2019 semester. However, Moss was relieved of her teaching duties again in the spring while the university conducted a second investigation.
SECOND INVESTIGATION
The spring investigation assessed whether Moss had satisfied the expectations given to her after the initial incident and investigation. This investigation resulted in a recommendation that Moss may be more suitable to teach online courses as well as the implementation of a task group to provide guidance for students and faculty regarding classroom management.
One of Moss’ students started an online petition after she was removed from her classroom the second time. The petition requested for Moss’ reinstatement and received over 900 signatures, but it did not lead to Moss being reinstated in the spring.
“The incident in November and the removal from class, it’s been very hard personally to go through that but it does not characterize and it is not representative of my entire career,” Moss said in an exclusive interview with The Paisano.
POST INVESTIGATIONS
Since the report of the second investigation was released in March, the 21st Century Learning Environment task group, a group charged with providing UTSA Provost Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy with a recommendation on improving the learning environment in classrooms at UTSA, is being organized. Moss has not been asked to return to teach at UTSA.
“The students today, are no different than earlier ones; they are still doing amazing things, they’re trying to find their potential, but they already have it,” Moss said. “Some of the ones I’ve talked to and wrote letters of recommendation for, I’m just blown away. They’ve got so many things that they’ve done; they’ve been on mission trips, they know they’re going this direction, and then there’s the ones that are struggling a lot, and when I can help them, it has been a really cool experience.”
