grilldaddy
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« on: June 17, 2009, 03:54:31 PM » |
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Our department faculty just got an email from the dean stating that he has removed our department head from his position and put someone else (an associate dean with no background in our field) in charge.
Minutes later, we got an email from our (now former) head saying that he was removed because he told the dean that he was going to file a grievance with the provost over the dean's preferential treatment of other departments. The dean said this was insubordination and unceremoniously fired him.
My question, o wise forumites, is whether you have ever heard of anything like this happening. I am only in my second year on the t-t, and I didn't think that the department head could be removed unilaterally and for no other reason than "you pissed me off". Is this how things work? Does this vary greatly from institution to institution? (I am at a public R1). Do you think that we will get our dept. head back?
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octoprof
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« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2009, 04:04:32 PM » |
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Our department faculty just got an email from the dean stating that he has removed our department head from his position and put someone else (an associate dean with no background in our field) in charge.
Minutes later, we got an email from our (now former) head saying that he was removed because he told the dean that he was going to file a grievance with the provost over the dean's preferential treatment of other departments. The dean said this was insubordination and unceremoniously fired him.
My question, o wise forumites, is whether you have ever heard of anything like this happening. I am only in my second year on the t-t, and I didn't think that the department head could be removed unilaterally and for no other reason than "you pissed me off". Is this how things work? Does this vary greatly from institution to institution? (I am at a public R1). Do you think that we will get our dept. head back?
1) Keep your head down and do your research. 2) Do not take sides. 3) Read your faculty handbook, which should include procedures for choosing/replacing/etc/ dept heads. 4) See number 1. |
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Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things... Mark Twain
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. Professor Dumbledore
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cgfunmathguy
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« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2009, 04:07:39 PM » |
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It sounds like your chair and your dean got into a pissing match, and your chair lost before s/he could play his trump card. Of course, telling the dean that s/he planned on doing this before actually doing it wasn't very smart.
The possibility of this happening varies among institutions, and not even by types. In some, deans have significant power, and in others, they don't. I would guess that, unless your chair was sitting in the provost's office when he sent the email, your department will be screwed for quite awhile. Of course, YMMV.
On preview: I'll second what Octoprof said.
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Alas, greatness and meaning are rarely coterminous with popular familiarity.
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grilldaddy
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« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2009, 04:09:34 PM » |
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Don't worry, octoprof, I am all about STFU as I don't have tenure. I couldn't find anything in the faculty handbook about the procedures for this. I'm still wondering if this kind of action by the dean is unusual in people's experience.
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cgfunmathguy
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« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2009, 04:10:48 PM » |
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Unusual, yes. Unheard of, no.
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Alas, greatness and meaning are rarely coterminous with popular familiarity.
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choirguy
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« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2009, 04:37:45 PM » |
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Chairs usually serve at the pleasure of the dean (or the next person up the food chain). Regardless of the faculty's voice in the selection of a chair, the dean holds all (or at least most) of the cards. Keep your head down, STFU, do your research, and hope that the new chair comes to you for advice about how the department should be run.
Good luck
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diefluffykitty
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« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2009, 04:40:43 PM » |
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Unusual, yes. Unheard of, no.
Exactly. Removing a chair is a vulgar power that can never be done gracefully and is rarely done at all. |
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systeme_d_
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« Reply #7 on: June 17, 2009, 05:11:53 PM » |
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Unusual, yes. Unheard of, no.
Exactly. Removing a chair is a vulgar power that can never be done gracefully and is rarely done at all. Agreed. However, something like this has happened twice at my university in the past academic year, and once about five years ago. However, the departments in question at my place were indeed dysfunctional, and the chairs were major parts of the underlying problems. In the case years ago, the department in question was first placed into receivership (outside person made chair), and was later reconstituted as three separate departments (which it should have been in the first place). Each department elected its own chair. In one of the recent cases, another person from inside the department was finally convinced to take the chair position, so the department did not go into receivership. In the other recent case, no one from inside the department was amenable to taking over as chair, despite the Dean's best efforts to convince them, so someone from outside the department was appointed. Here is an interesting paper on receivership. http://faculty.washington.edu/hechter/DubrowFriedman.pdf |
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« Last Edit: June 17, 2009, 05:13:58 PM by systeme_d »
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Systeme_D is right. <rah rah RESEARCH!> |
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daniel_von_flanagan
<redacted>
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Posts: 9,463
Works all day. Posts all night. Needs sleep.
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« Reply #8 on: June 17, 2009, 05:57:53 PM » |
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Exactly. Removing a chair is a vulgar power that can never be done gracefully and is rarely done at all. Happens, quite a lot, actually. I was once in one department where I had 3 chairs in one year. Normally the issue is more than a chair complaining about preferential treatment; it is part of a chair's job to lobby for his department. That said, I know that deans can be really touchy about people trying to do an end run around them. - DvF |
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The U.S. Education Department is establishing a new national research center to study colleges' ability to successfully educate the country's growing numbers of academically underprepared administrators.
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psychprof
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« Reply #9 on: June 20, 2009, 08:13:43 PM » |
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As others have noted, generally speaking the dean can do this. Dept chairs are administrators, and they serve at the pleasure of the dean.
Appointing someone from the outside is less common, although does happen. Usually it happens when the dean thinks that the dept is very dysfunctional or when there is nobody on the inside who is willing to be the interim or permanent chair. Its generally seen as an indicator that the dean thinks the dept is in trouble (although not always; once I was asked to be an interim in another dept because they were having a chair search and there were internal candidates and it seemed unfair to pick one over the other for the interim position. BTW, it was a good experience for me and for the other dept!)
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patchouli
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« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2009, 05:16:17 AM » |
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If you have a union, they can tell you the rules about this. Do you have one?
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Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. --Diderot
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ursula
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« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2009, 09:55:04 PM » |
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A dean can do anything s/he wants; I know because my dean told me so.
Seriously, check with your union or your university senate's "rules of engagement".
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"Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair."
Jack Layton, 1950-2011
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