Janet Shiver, who had been acting as interim chair for the Department of Communication and Journalism, has resigned after expressing frustration to colleagues about the inadequate internal working of the department.
Shiver's resignation, in which she also left her post as lecturer, also comes amid the department suspending its external search for a new full-time chair following the retirement of Karen Foss in early 2015.
“It is no secret that the C&J Department is fraught with its share of problems,” Shiver last Saturday wrote in an email to department faculty informing of her impending resignation. “The result is a hostile work and learning environment where no one really thrives.”
In response to her resignation, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Mark Peceny said assuming the mantle of department chair can be tough because of the vast ideological spectrum that is evident in an individual department.
"They report to the dean, they're selected by the dean, but they have to represent their faculty," Peceny said. "And this is a faculty that has an incredibly wide range of activities and missions."
As a result, differences of opinion may sprout in terms of which direction the department should take, disagreements that can become distractions, even ones that are "tiring" and "frustrating."
Shiver's e-mail obtained by the Daily Lobo hinted at such disagreements, ones that are enduring and firmly rooted.
"These problems are not simply intellectual or ideological differences but stem from much deeper issues," she states.
Peceny said in a lot of departments, many decisions are made somewhat informally, especially within smaller departments.
“That works if everyone is on the same page,” he said. “But if there are disagreements… It’s helpful to have more exclusive policies and procedures, and more formal adherence to the appropriate rules.”
Shiver said in the e-mail that, over the past year in her role as interim chair, "she attempted to create a more civil and respectful environment and sought to clarify departmental policies to ensure that they are fair and equitable."
Peceny lauded Shiver's service, calling her a "paragon of fairness, transparency, (while) following policy procedure." He said she was also apt to creating new policy and procedure in areas that were lacking in such infrastructure.
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“However,” Shiver wrote in her email, “I have come to realize, that those attempts only served to put a band-aid on a more systemic problem.”
Among other grievances, Shiver cites a lack of regard for the mental, emotional and physical health of faculty members by their colleagues en route to fostering what can only be described as hostile working conditions, an environment where colleagues "discredited" and even "bullied" one another to the detriment of graduate students in the department.
Eventually, after a year in the position, Shiver had had enough.
“It is difficult for someone in an interim status to manage all of those conversations," Peceny said. "So she said, ‘I’m done.'"
In reply to Shiver's announcement, one faculty member responded, via e-mail, that he was grateful for Shiver's attempts to fix the underlying issues within the department.
"It was painful watching you try and lead faculty meetings as several of our colleagues regularly conducted simultaneous conversations and dissed you at every chance," the e-mail stated. "We cannot discuss issues at a substantive level because we have not done so for more than a decade."
Given the dualistic nature of the department's research conducted between professionals of two fields that, while similar on the surface, differ when it comes to the minutiae, it is often necessary to work through conflicting perspectives among faculty, Peceny said.
It was in an effort to balance these conflicting perspectives - or put detrimental and contradicting opinions to rest - that prompted a nationwide search for a new chair.
“That’s one of the reasons why, initially, we thought it would be good to bring in someone from the outside, with a fresh perspective, to help guide the conversation about how to bring people together, to forge consensus,” Peceny said.
After failing to hire the three candidates put forth by the selection committee, which was headed by recently appointed department interim chair Philip Ganderton, that search has been suspended. The department could afford to do so, as Shiver was originally meant to hold the interim chair position through July 31st.
"Being a department chair comes with a lot of responsibility, but without very much authority with which to address that responsibility," Peceny said. “It is just the nature of being a chair.”
Peceny said he understands Shiver's frustrations expressed in her e-mail.
The decision to resign came after a discussion with the dean, Shiver wrote, stating, “I see that the problem is festering rather than being resolved.”
Johnny Vizcaino is a staff reporter at the Daily Lobo. Contact him at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @thedailyjohnnyv.
