Do you know, do you know, have you heard the news?

Heard about this anonymous email (literally, signed “Pace Anonymous”) that was sent to Phi Beta Kappa after the organization visited both the NYC and PLV campuses, and because I am a hater and a troll at my core, I managed to convince someone to forward it to me.

Sharing with permission from that person (or as much permission as one needs where an anonymous email is concerned), because this university is dead-set on murdering its faculty members (including me) and it should be the civic duty of everyone at this hellhole to expose every bit of drama they want to keep private.

Also, it’s worthy of mentioning that this email was sent some time after a disgruntled professor(s) used a throwaway email account to email the Board of Trustees, alleging an “ongoing conspiracy” by faculty members they don’t like (lots of them BIPOC, queer, and disabled) to defraud and dismantle Pace. Probably it was spearheaded by the weirdo in NYC BIO, since he keeps attacking people in committee meetings and aggressively undermines our composition programs for “punishing” our students with too many expensive courses.

I might be biased, but I think writing is more important to a well-rounded education these days than biology is. But shrug.

At any rate, here’s the infamous Phi Beta Kappa email. As a professor who also participated during their site visit, I have to say—this email writer speaks nothing but truth.

TO: Phi Beta Kappa
FROM: Pace Whistleblower
DATE: June 15, 2026
SUBJ: Exposing the Truth About PBK’s Site Visit to Pace University

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a professor at Pace University who spoke to Phi Beta Kappa representatives during their recent site visit at Pace University. I am writing anonymously for fear of retaliation and because I can no longer tolerate the lack of integrity surrounding that site visit, as it violates my own ethics and everything PBK stands for.

Please know that Pace admin explicitly directed us to lie to you about our functionality and financial management. Almost immediately after the site visit, the administration decided to gut integral programs that were presented to you as valued and supported—such as core writing, antiracism education, and the writing-enhanced course program (all of which we were told to talk about in ways that would “sell” Pace to you). Since your visit, layoffs and buyouts have impacted our libraries, our writing centers, and our wellness, antiracism, civic engagement, and undergraduate research initiatives to the point where it seems these offices will struggle to support the needs of a university. 

Significantly, Pace also decided to remove administrative release time from labor-intensive, mission-critical, university-wide programs like core writing, the writing-enhanced course program, and antiracism education, making it impossible to direct these programs (and knowingly impacting the health and wellbeing of multiple disabled directors). Worryingly, this means our core writing and writing-enhanced course programs will struggle next year, as the university has effectively terminated the directors’ ability to manage and assess those programs, let alone innovate them. This is part of a larger pattern where Pace is steadily undermining writing, antiracism, and the liberal arts core curriculum while continuing to privilege administrative bloat and mismanage money in other ways. 

Additionally, you were told that our bicampus governance is effective, when the truth is that specific departments are chaired by known abusers and bullies who make it impossible to engage across campuses in good faith. For instance, it’s a well-known fact that the co-chairs of the NYC English Department are toxic, antagonistic, and openly abusive to composition instructors in their own department and in Pleasantville, to the point they were named in a lawsuit by an adjunct for racism and retaliatory termination. Several faculty members across departments and campuses have suffered physical and psychological harm at their hands, with medical documentation to prove it, and have fruitlessly filed reports with the appropriate offices. Interdepartmental and bicampus cooperation become impossible when multiple faculty members have had to file orders of no-contact to protect ourselves from them.

Finally, please know that the School of Arts and Sciences recently voted no confidence in the dean and associate deans, resulting in all of them leaving office. Frankly, many of us have little confidence in the new provost as well, as she has chosen to stay silent and tacitly permit all of this, and we have even less confidence in our outgoing president, who mismanaged our finances for years and only seems interested in securing a PBK chapter as part of his legacy—even if that means tricking you into establishing one here.

A group of us faculty who believe in the value of a liberal arts education and are committed to educating our students have been fighting tooth and nail to keep these programs afloat, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the university isn’t listening to us, and we’re running out of leverage. 

We love the work we do as educators. We simply want to be able to do it without being expected to kill ourselves in the process. And we would love for you to start a chapter here, but in the environment you were promised during your site visit—one where writing programs, antiracism education, and a general liberal arts education is treated as important, where faculty members are expected to treat each other with respect and civility, and where integrity is valued.

Your decision to start a chapter here should be informed by truth, not deceit. You and PBK are not responsible for the situation at Pace, but whatever your final verdict is, I appeal to you as a desperate educator: if you are able at all to exert pressure on our administration to restore release time and stipends to the very mission-critical programs used to lure you here—if you are able at all to send a message that there should be a zero-tolerance policy regarding abuse in the workplace—if you are able at all to underscore that, especially in today’s culture, writing instruction and antiracism education are imperative and must be provided with time to do the work—we would be eternally grateful, for ourselves, and for our students.

My personal hope is that, because Pace admin so desperately want a PBK chapter here, if you were to inquire into this matter, they may be forced to reconsider and even reverse the deep cuts they have made to our educational programs, halt further cuts to important offices, and restore the bare-minimum compensation of release time that allowed us to do this work at all. 

Regardless of how you proceed, thank you for taking the time to read this email. Despite the conditions surrounding it, it was a pleasure chatting with you during your site visit, and I wish you a restful and restorative summer.

In solidarity,
Pace Anonymous

When complaint fails, shame is a legitimate tactic of the oppressed.