LU faculty unhappy with Sewell proposals

Many in the Lincoln University Faculty Senate are unhappy with announced plans to change school operations — and they have asked for a special meeting to discuss the situation in more detail.

During Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, they reacted to an email sent last Friday by Said Sewell announcing “a leadership transition and reorganization in the Division of Academic Affairs … reorganizing both the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Professional Studies.”

Sewell is in his second year as LU’s vice president for Academic Affairs and provost.

To “set the stage for this reorganization,” Sewell reported, “Dr. Ruthi Sturdevant and Dr. Linda Bickel will be stepping down at the end of this academic year as deans of their respective colleges and will exercise their options to return to the faculty as full-professors.”

Neither Sturdevant nor Bickel have commented on the email.

Bickel attended Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, but didn’t comment during the discussion.

Professor Jennifer Benne opened the discussion during Thursday’s meeting, noting: “We actually, last fall, had a lot of discussion about not changing the administration that we currently have.

“I feel that, weeks before the end of the semester, to receive a notice that not only are we changing our current administrators, but that there’s a potential for restructuring the entire university — as faculty, I’m ready to demand that we have a voice in this!”

Benne started teaching at Lincoln in 1998 and reminded colleagues there have been about a half-dozen restructurings under at least three presidents during that period.

“The email was not that clear — it sounds like it strips faculty of even more power,” Assistant Professor Mary Jones said.

“We don’t seem to have much power anyway if our resolutions are continually ignored.”

Assistant Professor Elijah Burrell added: “I feel like our shared governance is disappearing quickly, not slowly.”

Shared governance is a policy adopted by Lincoln’s curators a number of years ago, which says LU’s faculty, staff and students “shall share a role in the governance of the institution. … In accordance with their bylaws, the shared governance groups and committees shall make proposals and recommendations germane to their functions,” with the chair or president of each of the groups serving as liaison with the university president and other members of the administration.

The university’s rules and regulations say the Faculty Senate “shall serve as a major advisory body to the president.”

Senate Chair Bryan Salmons told the News Tribune after Thursday’s meeting: “It seems to me that, in recent months at least, we have gotten a little bit confused about what ‘shared governance’ actually means and how it is constituted at this university. … Most faculty have expressed to me that they feel this reorganization and the way it’s been approached is reflective of a disregard for faculty’s role in shared governance.”

Professor Mara Aruguete noted Sewell’s email already has created “rumors around this campus that perhaps we will be without department chairs eventually in this re-structure. If faculty have no department chairs, that means there is no faculty leadership of faculty (and) we are, basically, led by administrators entirely.”

Sewell did not respond to a News Tribune request for more details about the restructuring or for comments about Thursday’s Senate meeting.

His email last Friday said: “Over the next few months, LU will begin to re-imagine the academic enterprise in order to meet an ever-changing world in higher education …”

Several people wondered if Lincoln’s faculty should unionize.

“Harris-Stowe (State University, St. Louis) has unionized, and they are effective. They have gotten raises,” said one professor, who wasn’t identified.

“And (their faculty) are being treated better.”

Another LU teacher added: “This re-organization feels like a move toward a for-profit (school), which not only discourages the quality of education we offer to our students but our credibility.”

Some agreed previous LU presidents also have launched reorganizations.

After the meeting, Salmons said: “This is much bigger than any individual or individual relationships. This is about principles, and it’s about practices. … For some reason — maybe it’s part of the handbook for administrators — no one ever comes in as an administrator and goes, ‘Hey! I like the status quo!’

“Change for the sake of change is inane. There’s no justification for it, ultimately.”

Benne received applause during the meeting when she said: “Obviously, the administration can’t get it right — maybe they should ask some people who do the work!”