Deans Eric Eliason and Mariangela Maguire announce resignation to faculty on May 5

The Gustavus faculty received an e-mail from Provost Mary Morton Tuesday, May 5 regarding the resignation of both of the College’s academic deans, Mariangela Maguire and Eric Eliason.

According to the e-mail Maguire and Eliason “have resigned their positions as Academic Deans and will return to their faculty positions for the Fall semester 2009.” Eliason will return to the Department of English, and Maguire will return to the Department of Communication Studies after a sabbatical leave during Fall Semester.

“The College’s loss of Eric in Academic Affairs is the [English] Department’s gain,” said Associate Professor of English Laura Behling.

The Senate originally recommended the two academic deans for the position of interim provost to fill Morton’s position, but Maguire and Eliason declined the position in a letter to the Faculty Senate sent Friday May 1.

They detailed their reasons for declining in the letter to the Faculty Senate, specifically citing the lack of presidential support they received. “We appreciated that the president met with us immediately after the provost’s resignation was announced. But the absence of any further contact or subsequent words of encouragement or support communicates a lack of support with complete clarity,” the letter said. “Obviously no one can succeed as interim provost without the president’s support and cooperation.”

“Given the lack of presidential support, it would be disingenuous for us to pursue a role when we do not believe we can succeed,” the letter went on to say.

The Faculty Senate voted at its meeting on Wednesday, May 6 to release the letter No one in the Provost’s Office was able to comment on the resignations.

Surprise and uncertainty

This announcement came as a surprise to much of the campus community. “As an individual faculty member, I am reeling because it seems like there is a vacuum in the academic administration,” said Professor of Physics Steve Mellema.

“This is very, very disturbing to me as a faculty member and as the director of an academic program at the college. I don’t know who I’m reporting to anymore after May 31,” said Sujay Rao, assistant professor of history.

Some community members question the reasons why the deans resigned. “To get [new] academic deans is not something that is unheard of; it’s a pretty natural process. Why we’re getting new academic deans is the point of concern,” said Senior Communication Studies Major and Student Senate Co-President Luke Garrison.

History of the position

The academic deans’ primary function is “to supervise the academic departments, to work with academic departments in developing strategic plans, but also to work with academic departments in hiring faculty, recruiting faculty, managing department budgets,” said Rao.

“The provost and the two deans were essentially [the faculty’s] entire representation at the vice-presidential level, so we depended on them to represent our interests as faculty interests and student interests,” said Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies Deane Curtin.

The structure of the Academic Affairs Office changed in recent years, going from a one-dean model to a new model that consists of a provost and two academic deans.

“The provost had responsibilities that the dean had not had before, including responsibilities off campus for raising money. So that’s why we thought we needed deans under the provost, because we needed more on site day-to-day control of academic issues,” said Curtin.

The deans’ role in the provost controversy

Gustavus recently came up with a plan to find an interim provost for two years until the College could find a permanent replacement. President Ohle and the Faculty Senate reached an agreement that the faculty would nominate several faculty members to fill the position. The president was in process of contacting each person individually for interviews when the controversy about the deans began.

“Anyone who was either self-nominated or nominated [by someone else was] nominated in a climate where there were two deans in place who know about all the things that need to be done. … Whatever plan we had moving forward now has to be somehow revised,” said Mellema.

In light of the recent resignations, several faculty members have doubts about President Ohle’s leadership style. “For faculty members, what was especially important was that we had a provost and two academic deans in place who understood and could advocate for the academic program. … Now, that [academic leadership] is all gone,” said Rao. “In my view, that is gone because President Ohle’s style and decision making process are not conducive to any kind of teamwork.”

“I have some sympathy for President Ohle because of the way he was hired. He had no chance to get to know Gustavus before he was announced as our president. On the other hand, that makes it particularly important once he has been named as president to take time to get to know the community he was supposed to be leading, and he didn’t do that,” said Curtin. “The future depends on his willingness to listen, and it’s not clear to me so far that he is listening to our concerns.”

The academic deans expressed hope that Ohle will evaluate his time at Gustavus in the coming months. “We think it important that the president talk about what didn’t work well this year and what he thinks needs to happen in order for the next two years to work better,” said Maguire and Eliason in their resignation letter.

The future for the position

Much is unknown at this time about what the future holds for the academic deans’ positions. No one is sure how the process of hiring new deans will come about, but the College usually follows certain principles when hiring for these positions.

“The principles that are usually followed are the principles of shared governance, which say that the leaders of the academic program on the campus need to have the confidence of the faculty, and the faculty should have a predominate role in choosing those leaders,” said Rao.

People acknowledged the College’s recent trouble and the need for a solution. “At the moment, the college has started to lose some of its cohesion and community spirit, which are among its strengths,” said Eric Dugdale, associate professor of classics.

However, Dugdale is optimistic that a solution can be reached. “What I would really like to see is all involved coming together in a really constructive dialogue with direct communication between faculty members and board members,” said Dugdale.

Praise for the deans

Several people praised the deans for their leadership in the academic administration. “During these past four years, Eric and Mariangela have led the faculty with transparency and fairness, building trust between administrative offices and the faculty,” said Morton in her e-mail to faculty.
“For the last two years, we have had the best academic administrative team we’ve ever had in the history of this college,” said Mellema.

Eliason drew praise for his “work with the provost, Mary Morton, and other academic dean, Mariangela Maguire, [which] helped with thoughtful decision-making that was well-respected among English Department faculty and faculty across the campus,” said Behling.

The student perspective

Some major concerns for students are the uncertainty about what exactly is happening and why the deans resigned. “Students need to know the reason why they’re resigning,” said Garrison.

Student Senate will bring up the issue at its next meeting. “We are going to talk about it at our Monday meeting. … We’re certainly going to have a conversation about the academic deans in light of the provost situation, because they are somewhat connected. I don’t know what will come of that conversation, but we will certainly talk about it.”

That meeting will take place next Monday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room.