Professor Faye Gale, Vice Chancellor
c/o Ms Kerry Evans
Academic Staff Association
University of Western Australia
Nedland, WA 6009
AUSTRALIA

Dear Vice Chancellor Gale:

I was astounded to hear through the electronic rumor mill that the University of Western Australia is contemplating not granting tenure to Dr. David Rindos. Rindos is an outstanding scholar of international reputation, the very kind of person that an institution like the University of Western Australia ought to be attempting to attract and retain. He has made major contributions to agriculture and to the application of evolutionary theory to people, and until recently (undoubtedly connected to his institutional problems now that they have become generally known), highly productive.

Most of the archaeological community is aware that archaeology has been problematic at the University of Western Australia, but those problems, or at least rumors of same, predate Rindos' arrival in Australia. Indeed, I think Rindos received advice warning off accepting the post at your institution just because of the quarrelsome reputation of the principal archaeologist then in residence. It would be a grave error to lose Rindos' services and reputation because he has become caught up in a situation not of his own making.

I can barely imagine circumstances that might see Rindos not receive tenure at any major institution other than fiscal emergency.

I should emphasize that I have actually met Rindos only a few times. My comments are based solely on his status and contributions to the discipline. The archaeological community would be shocked, I suspect were he not to receive tenure and their view of your institution would suffer accordingly. Should it be useful to your deliberations, I would be happy to analyze Rindos' contributions in detail, but I trust that the international interest that these rumors must be generating is evidence enough that Rindos is an exceptional scholar.

Sincerely,

/Signed/
Robert C Dunnell,
Professor