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President Carothers hands deans sample letters of resignation
Christopher Barrett & Andy Blais
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
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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."
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."
