Grievances

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Preamble The Department of Political Science does not take lightly the decision to hold a vote of no confidence in a Dean, particularly one who possesses tenure in our own department. Rather, our decision represents the outgrowth of what a majority of the department perceives to be both short- and long-term failures of leadership that are serious, irreparable, and directly threaten the mission of CLASS. While we acknowledge that recent developments in our department have played a significant role in this decision, our grievances are not limited to that incident. To the contrary, this recent series of events highlights a number of serious deficiencies that have been endemic to Dean Smith’s leadership of the College. To that end, a majority of the Department’s faculty recently voted to ratify the following statement: Having no confidence in his ability to continue serving as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, I request that the administration begin the process of replacing Dean Michael Smith (agree or disagree). The department’s central grievances against the Dean include the following: Grievance #1: Dean's Administrative and Leadership Style 1. The faculty in the Department of Political Science is especially aggrieved by what they perceive as a deliberate climate of disrespect, suspicion, hostility, and intimidation of its members by the Dean of the College. We believe that our feelings are not isolated ones but endemic throughout the College. We urge the Provost to use his leadership and his position to speak privately and confidentially with the chairs and some of the senior faculty within each of the departments in the College about this serious issue. 2. The faculty in the Department of Political Science is especially aggrieved by what they perceive as threats of retribution to individual faculty members and/or to departmental goals and programs by the Dean of the College. 3. The faculty in the Department of Political Science is especially aggrieved by the creation and perpetuation of a general climate of fear regarding civil disagreement among this department and the wider College. 4. The faculty in the Department of Political Science is dumb-founded by the decision of the administration to terminate its Chair, Dr. Richard Pacelle, three weeks into the new 2011 semester. We believe that the Dean did not properly weigh the many foreseeable costs to the functioning of the department prior to Dr. Pacelle's immediate removal. His decision leaves us to believe that he is either very inexperienced or unconcerned about the risks of his decisions for the well being of the department, its faculty, its students, and our academic mission. Our sincere concerns include: a) Placing at risk the reaccreditation process of the MPA program, where stability of leadership is of paramount importance.

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Grievances by Georgia Southern University - Issuu