Should I participate in this?

[spork]

If it were me, I would resign from the committee under protest. 

I am not sure how much I would continue to push against the division head or the administration. But if I did push, I'd seek the advice of legal counsel who are familiar with discrimination in academics before I did. Make sure you protect yourself.  Sorry you are in this situation.

Yes. Resign. Protect yourself. This is a ticking time bomb and you don't want to be in the room when it explodes.

[Stockmann]

I think you should resign from the committee and make the reasons clear. Worst case scenario you get replaced with a yes-man, but as the committee is clearly pro-forma anyway, it wouldn't make any practical difference. Devoting the time and energy used for the committee to something else would be better for you and for the institution, since the committee is powerless.

[fishbrains]

If it were me, I would resign from the committee under protest. 

I am not sure how much I would continue to push against the division head or the administration. But if I did push, I'd seek the advice of legal counsel who are familiar with discrimination in academics before I did. Make sure you protect yourself.  Sorry you are in this situation.

This would be my approach. CYA and, and as Ruralguy stated, do not throw out anything.

It's fine for the president to support administrators, but there should be more support for shared governance--at least in an ideal world.

Tough place to be.

[Ruralguy]

The way I see it, either the admin blows it and ignores you again, in which case you can make a much bigger deal of it, or, they see the light and find the merits in at least some of your committee's arguments.  That's a lot of work for a Pyrrhic victory, but either way, it could help people.

[polly_mer]

If it were me, I would resign from the committee under protest. 

I am not sure how much I would continue to push against the division head or the administration. But if I did push, I'd seek the advice of legal counsel who are familiar with discrimination in academics before I did. Make sure you protect yourself.  Sorry you are in this situation.

Yes. Resign. Protect yourself. This is a ticking time bomb and you don't want to be in the room when it explodes.

This.  Not enough has changed to make this worth being the hill on which to die.

How many years do you have left in your career?  If it's more than a couple, then you might also want to be looking for a job at place that isn't sinking, based on other threads you've started.

[writingprof]

The union got involved and both the union and the tenure appeals committee were convinced that the faculty member had an airtight case for a lawsuit. But she was so overwhelmed and dejected by all this that she left academia and stopped communicating with everyone.

Now, see, this I don't get. Never walk away from a good lawsuit.

Otherwise, I agree with the group.

[larryc]

The entire committee should have resigned last year.

But now is also good. Do it alone if you have to, but if others go along that is better.

[Hegemony]

The committee had only one thing to do last year, which was report on this case. So after it was over we were done, and resigning would have been meaningless — we were no longer on the committee.

Strangely, I am not "still" on the committee — I am on the committee "again." My first term was over (it was a two-year appointment and last year was the second year. The first year, we had no cases.) I had no idea I was supposed to be on the committee again until I got hit with all this material last week.  So this is my first chance to resign — and I will take it.

[clean]

I reiterate that I think that you should stay.

The administrator has changed to some degree.  You should give that person a chance to do the right thing and not abandon them. 
You are familiar with the situation from last year.
Who else could do as good a job representing the faculty members in such instances?  After all, you are appointed to a committee that serves as a check on the administration to prevent abuse of the faculty.

IF it were you whose case were being heard, would you want someone with your experiences on the committee?  Turning your back on this assignment isnt turning your back on the administration, but on the faculty who NEED the help.

[Hibush]

Turning your back on this assignment isnt turning your back on the administration, but on the faculty who NEED the help.

+1

Staying does not make you complicit with the abuses, it preserves an important counterbalance to the abuses.

[Hegemony]

Except that our counterbalancing did absolutely no good last time. It was just window dressing, to make it look as if it was a fair process when it was anything but.

[Kron3007]

I would also leave in protest and probably write a letter on my way out.  What the letter contained and where is would be sent would depend on a variety of factors (what is confidential, how secure you are in your position, etc.), but the goal would be to make sure that someone outside of the group that made the decision became aware of how this is operating.

One thing I hate is to waste my time in a committee that is only there to check a box and has no actual power.  As you stated, at this point you are only window dressing to give the process the appearance of validity.  If you think you can change that, perhaps it would be worth staying on but from what you have stated it seems unlikely.  For that reason, I would leave and try to bring attention to the issues.  I actually think that you  and the others resigning would provide any new administrator with more leverage to change things than if you stay on.

[Ruralguy]

Most full prof committees are a waste of time. Even if they do valuable work, it tends to get delayed, watered down, distorted.

Also, if you only heard that one case, then it might have been frustrating or just plain had the wrong outcome, but doesn't prove that would always happen.

But again, if that's repeated, I think it gives everyone on the committee a reason to resign.

[mleok]

But again, if that's repeated, I think it gives everyone on the committee a reason to resign.

Indeed, and the time to resign is when the university president refuses to act upon the recommendations of the appeal committee, as opposed to a couple of months after the fact.

[Ruralguy]

Another option: don't accept chair, but stay on the committee. I don't think that "makes a statement" though. However, it likely cuts down on the work.