Van der Merwe has a laboratory at theUniversity of Capetown in South Africa, where hesays he maintains an adjunct appointment andspends January and the summer, "I never talk tohim, I never see him," charges one of van derMerwe's advisees. "It's almost like he doesn'texist."
And another van der Merwe advisee, Kwang-TzouChen, alleges that one of van der Merwe's classes,Archaeometry Lab Practicum, is simply "taughtunder his name."
Van der Merwe says that it is common forarchaeology professors to have labs in foreigncountries, The nature of the profession, he says,requires archaeology professors to spendsignificant amount of time in the field.
"It's been very difficult for five years to setup a lab for the teaching and research I do," saidvan der Merwe, "It's highly technical work."
Van der Merwe also says that he spendssignificant amounts of time teaching.
In fact, students who took van der Merwe'sfirst-year seminar this fall on "ScientificAnalysis of Materials" say they like theirprofessor and their class.
"I wish he spent as much time with us as hedoes the freshmen in his seminar," one of van derMerwe's graduate students says, "He does a greatjob with the freshmen, I don't know why he doesn't[do a good job] with us."