President Carothers hands deans sample letters of resignation

By: Christopher Barrett & Andy Blais

Posted: 11/15/07

11/15/07 - University of Rhode Island President Robert L. Carothers handed some academic deans sample letters of resignation about a week ago, Provost Beverly Swan confirmed yesterday.

Yesterday, Carothers confirmed he had handed some deans letters, but refused to discuss their contents.

"These discussions within management are for the management people, not the press," Carothers said before a "topping out" ceremony for the new Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences.

Carothers, who repeatedly said he did not want to discuss the topic, said the deans were not leaving.

"They all have my full confidence," he said, adding later, "They're not going to resign."

But Carothers declined to explicitly say if he was putting pressure on deans to resign and confirmed he had met with the deans to discuss the many "challenges" the university faces.

"We talked about how challenging it is to face all of these issues right now," Carothers said.

The university is in the midst of a re-accreditation review done every 10 years by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. At the same time, the university - led by Carothers - is pushing for increasingly larger freshman class sizes, which in turn has put pressure on some faculty to teach larger classes.

Some deans and chairs have grumbled that Carothers is placing too much emphasis on rapid expansion in the sciences and ignoring other aspects of the university.

A group of faculty senators from the library called on Faculty Senate to explore the issue during its meeting scheduled for today.

"Recent events seem to indicate that deans on campus feel powerless, that they don't have input with the administration regarding decisions about delivering the curriculum and about budgetary matters," the senators wrote to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee earlier this month. "Recent events also suggest that any protest by the deans on these matters will not be tolerated by the administration."

The letter, signed by Andree Rathemacher and Amanda Izenstark, also reported that academic department chairs appeared frustrated and lacked the necessary resources to properly teach.

Senator John Leo, an English professor, echoed their comments.

"They feel like [Carothers has] lost touch," Leo said. "Or maybe both sides have lost touch ... The university is very much hurting and that is apparent to everyone."

But Leo said not everyone feels that way, with divisions between those that feel the university is moving in the right direction toward a heavy emphasis on science, and those that think the humanities are not receiving enough resources.

Rathemacher and Izenstark hinted in their letter that they would ask the senate to explore the topic during the meeting.

"If the administration at URI is broken, it is up to the faculty to take action and fix it," Rathemacher and Izenstark wrote.

But nothing related to Carothers' job performance is listed on the senate's agenda and Chairman James Miller said he was unaware of anyone asking for a vote of no confidence in the president.

"I have definitely not heard that at all," he said.

Miller said he would likely entertain a discussion about the letters to the dean or Carothers' job performance if a senator brought it up.

In the meantime, the deans appeared unwilling to discuss the issue.

Lynn McKinney, dean of the College of Human Science and Services, declined to comment.

College of Nursing Dean Dayle Joseph, according to her executive assistant, was "too busy" to discuss the issue.

College of Business Administration Dean Mark Higgins was also unavailable for comment.

And Dean of College of Arts and Sciences Winifred Brownell declined to discuss the issue other than to say, "I think I have the full confidence of the president."

Jeffrey Seemann, dean of the College of Environment and Life Sciences, said, "nobody asked me to resign."

If the deans did resign en masse, it would be the first time in recent memory such a major change occurred at the administrative level. The timing would coincide with the arrival of a new provost expected to be named by the end of the year.

Yesterday, state Commissioner of Higher Education Jack Warner said he couldn't recall a time when deans left in a large number, even as the university searches for a new provost.

"Well, sometimes when a new leader enters an institution they make changes, but generally not all at once," Warner said.

When the new provost does arrive, Carothers said he does not expect him or her to clean house.

"[The new provost] wouldn't say that," Carothers said, before ending the interview. "I don't want to talk about it."