Dr. Vitalis TemuAAUP
Six faculty members fired from Virginia State University's Agricultural Research Station just before Christmas are demanding their jobs back, saying their terminations were not only unlawful but also jeopardized more than $10 million in federally funded research and left farmers scrambling.
The group, which has taken to calling themselves the "Fired Six," held a press conference Tuesday just outside the historically Black university's campus in Petersburg, Virginia, making their first public appearance since being abruptly dismissed on Dec. 16, 2025. The six — five tenured professors and one tenure-track assistant professor — say they were called into individual meetings under the pretense of discussing the research station's restructuring, only to be told their employment was ending immediately.
"I couldn't even talk and ask questions," said Dr. Toktam Taghavi, an associate professor of horticulture who spent more than eight years at VSU. "I was just frozen. I never had this happen to me."
The group says they were pressured to sign severance agreements on the spot, without time to review the documents or consult legal counsel. When they refused, they were escorted off campus by university police, stripped of their IDs, keys, and equipment, and issued trespass warnings — despite no allegations of misconduct.
To date, they say they have received no written explanation for their dismissals. Some, including Taghavi and agricultural research expert Dr. Vitalis Temu, had been recognized as outstanding staff as recently as 2024.
"These terminations intentionally disrupted ongoing studies that VSU had already committed to support, costing taxpayers over $10 million in federal and state-funded projects," Temu said. He added that the firings also wasted funds already invested in specialized equipment and facilities that cannot be repurposed elsewhere.
The research station, part of VSU's College of Agriculture, serves small and part-time farmers across Virginia — many of whom are now left without support. Taghavi had secured a $650,000 grant to develop packaging materials to extend the shelf life of strawberries. Temu was in the middle of a goat foraging study with Rose Battle, a farmer in Waverly, Virginia, who had already purchased equipment for the project.
