The Deacon's Bench
This story, posted earlier in the week, received tons of attention from around the internet—and the university that employed the teacher now says the charges in the column are untrue.
Details from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
An op-ed piece Wednesday in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recounting the death of a longtime Duquesne University adjunct professor fueled online anger nationally over conditions facing low-paid temporary instructors but was criticized by the school as misleading and exploitative.
The column involved Margaret Mary Vojtko, 83, who taught French at Duquesne University for 25 years before being let go this spring. After she died Sept. 1, Daniel Kovalik, senior associate general counsel of the United Steelworkers, the union currently in a fight to organize adjunct instructors at Duquesne, wrote the piece.
Mr. Kovalik wrote of the near-homeless woman’s battle with cancer, of her struggles as a semester-to-semester hire earning as little as $10,000 a year, and of her death following a heart attack not long after losing her job with no severance or retirement benefits.
Online, the column went viral, attracting more than 171,000 page views on the newspaper’s website, 50,000-plus Facebook likes and almost 1,500 comments from readers across the U.S. and overseas.
All of it placed the Catholic university of nearly 10,000 students at the center of a maelstrom — undeservedly so, its leaders said Thursday.
They took umbrage at the column’s suggestion that the school did not help the woman. In fact, the campus community reached out to her on multiple occasions, inviting her at one point to live on campus, said John Plante, university vice president for advancement.
“Despite the assertions made in the op-ed piece, individuals across the University community attempted to help Margaret Mary through her last trying days. Spiritan priests, support staff, and University and McAnulty College administrators reached out to assist Margaret Mary with the challenges she faced,” Mr. Plante wrote in a letter Thursday to university employees.
Meantime, the newspaper also printed the letter below, from a campus chaplain:
I was incredulous after reading Daniel Kovalik’s op-ed piece about Margaret Mary Vojtko (“Death of an Adjunct: Margaret Mary Died Underpaid and Underappreciated,” Sept. 18, Perspectives).
I knew Margaret Mary well. When we learned of problems with her home, she was invited to live with us in the formation community at Laval House on campus, where she resided for several weeks over the past year.
Over the course of Margaret Mary’s illness I, along with other Spiritan priests, visited with her regularly. In addition, the university and the Spiritan priests at Duquesne offered several other types of assistance to her.
Mr. Kovalik’s use of an unfortunate death to serve an alternative agenda is sadly exploitive and is made worse because his description of the circumstances bears no resemblance to reality.
REV. DANIEL WALSH
Chaplain
Director of Campus Ministry
Duquesne University
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In