University of Colorado Denver Disrespects Haiti More Than a Decade before Trump and Vance

Haiti has been in the news lately because of racist false stories created by JD Vance and spread by Donald Trump. It is unfortunate that candidates will vilify Haitian immigrants who are in the USA legally for political gain. Americans should instead know true stories about Haiti, such as them fighting for the colonies during the American Revolution and making possible the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 by beating Napoleon’s forces during the Haitian Revolution.

This recent vilification of Haiti reminds me of the multiple times that the University of Colorado took racist actions against Haitians while I was a professor there. There were 10,000s of natural disasters that took place during my 20+ year tenure at CU, but just once did CU Denver take to Facebook to announce that faculty, staff, and students were forbidden from traveling to a disaster zone to help victims. That one disaster was the earthquake that shook Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. While other universities sent experts and supplies to help the Haitian victims, CU took the racist decision of forbidding such assistance.

I criticized CU’s racist decision and went to Haiti to assist victims of the earthquake. While there, I fell in love with the wonderful people and noted severely degraded ecosystems. As an Applied Ecologist, I decided to conduct my scholarly work in Haiti. Within months of my new work, Diana Tomback led the effort to remove accomplishments of my work in Haiti from things that the Department of Integrative Biology would reward. CU would not reward my peer-reviewed publication about my research in Haiti, even after I notified them that their actions were racist. Prof. Tomback was rewarded for teaching at a predominantly-white university in Canada but CU would not reward the teaching I did at a black university in Haiti. The first time in my entire career that I failed to meet teaching expectations was the year that I taught in Haiti and advised the first Haitian to earn a MS in Marine Conservation. Avowed racist John Swallow gave me this rating even though my teaching in Haiti was in addition to my teaching responsibilities at CU.

A Haitian presidential candidate and dean of the Haitian university where I taught wrote a letter to CLAS Dean Pamela Jansma, thanking her for my work in Haiti and offering to develop a student exchange program. Dean Jansma never sent a reply. After learning that Dean Jansma wrote a paper that predicted the Haitian earthquake, I ask her if she would like to teach a field course together in Haiti. She ignored my request. Dean Jansma threatened to suspend my salary while I was in Haiti, even though the Office of Risk Management informed me that such action would put my safety at risk.

Haiti’s Minister of the Environment sent a letter to Chancellor Dorothy Horrell explaining the MOU I had entered with the Government of Haiti and offering to develop programs with CU. Chancellor Horrell never responded. This racist slight of a Haitian leader can be compared to the trip that Chancellor Horrell made half way around the world to develop programs with leaders of Qatar.

Despite the lack of support and discouragement I endured for working with Haitians, I continued my work there because my work was rewarding, important, and saving Haitian lives. I discovered an innovative method call “transdisciplinary scholarship” (Cronin 2014) and defined my field of applied ecology (Cronin and Briggle 2018). Even though I was the only professor at CU that defined their method and field, CU went through great lengths to fire me because I worked in Haiti and informed administrators that their actions were racist. Provost Roderick Nairn and Prof. Weldon Lodwick told me to not talk about racism. Chair John Swallow would not allow me to teach “Race and Racism in Biology”. Dean Pamela Jansma would not allow me to teach a field course in Haiti. Despite my efforts to remain at CU Denver and continue my award-winning work in Haiti, CU’s hatred for Haiti eventually forced me out. 100% of Haitian and Taino witnesses stated that I was competent and did great work in Haiti. CU only valued the White witnesses who claimed I was incompetent.

I was able to ask some Haitians’ opinion about CU’s action during my dismissal hearing:

Cronin: "How does it make you feel that my employer banned me from going to Haiti to help you or your people?"

Haitian Colleague 1: "It made me feel really sad. The fact that good people like you, we don't really find good people like you to come and help our people, especially a Black nation that is being forsaken by the rest of the world. You think everything is okay after the earthquake. It is not okay. It is not. It is not okay. The people are starving. They are dying."

Cronin: "Thank you. Are you -- are you thankful that other universities did send experts and supplies to help after the earthquake?"

Haitian Colleague 1: "I am really thankful, sir, with what you did in Haiti, you were awesome, you were great, and your legacy down there, with or without people help, I'm upset the fact the university choose to pull you out, but we need you down there, Greg. We need your help down there."

Cronin: "So after the earthquake, would you agree that you and your people needed assistance?"

Haitian Colleague 2: "We needed all kind of assistance after the earthquake. Even right now we still need lots of more assistance."

Cronin: "How does it make you feel that CU Denver told all of their employees that they could not go to Haiti to help?"

Haitian Colleague 2: "It makes me -- it broke me. You know, it broke me, you know. It broke me, like this is not human. You know, this decision, it's like alien decision, alien, you know, deciding to turn the bat on us. Because I think as human, was to be looking, you know, one after another, and no matter -- and no matter what... That's how it's always been. Human always been there for human."

On Feb. 10, 2021, I sent the following message to the Regents of Colorado. “It is a fact that the first and only time CU Denver ever announced a travel ban that prevented faculty, staff, and students from assisting victims of a natural disaster was Jan. 13, 2010, the day after the earthquake in Haiti (see Cronin's Montreal presentation). At my dismissal hearing, Provost Nairn defended this action with prepared testimony that contrasted greatly with his ignorance of the Haiti earthquake during our 2018 meetings. My closing argument states "CU’s half-truths and excuses are not honorable and will not change the racist status quo. CU’s response to Exhibit A [travel ban] should be “CU Denver apologizes for publicly banning employees from traveling to Haiti to assist victims in their time of greatest need. We apologize for stigmatizing Haiti on Facebook and we understand why many people consider our post racist. Upon reflection, we should have remained silent as we had on every other natural disaster in our history, and worked to organize assistance and a way to deliver it. CU Denver now admits that the announcement was racist, and we are sorry. CU Denver regrets the harm we have caused Haiti, we learned from it, it will never happen again, and we will do our best to make it up to Haiti. Thank you Haiti for being a beacon of hope and an example of incredible strength when faced with unfathomable challenges.” These are the kinds of messages the public would see from CU if they gave me the position VCDIE (Exhibit CK)."

The University of Colorado Denver has never apologized to Haitians for their racist decisions. I think that Haitians are as likely to hear “We are sorry for treating you that way” from the University of Colorado, John Swallow, Pamela Jansma, Roderick Nairn, Dorothy Horrell, Diana Tomback, Weldon Lodwick, Stephen Cass, Mark Kennedy, or any Regent of Colorado as they are from Donald Trump or JD Vance.