We have in our possession a letter addressed to Kean’s Faculty from Dr. Eric Boehm, whose name you may recognize from recent posts on this blog. Dr. Boehm has been a Professor in the Biology Department for the last four years and was recently informed that he will not be reappointed next year, at which point he would have received tenure. After two separate appeals for reappointment, it became clear that the decision about Dr. Boehm’s tenure was set in stone; he was no longer welcome at our University.
After realizing that he could “only be fired once,” Dr. Boehm wrote this letter to his colleagues to express his bewilderment at the restructuring of the Science Departments, and to warn them about Dr. Eaton, the new Director of the equally new School of Environmental and Life Sciences (SELS), whom Boehm believes was “hired with the express purpose of dissolving our department, and consolidating an "us against them" policy” within the ranks of its teaching staff.
“With the creation of the School of Environmental & Life Sciences (SELS), as a separate entity within the College, and the sudden administrative decision, without any prior faculty consultation, nor any effort to build faculty consensus, to physically relocate half of our faculty to another bldg separate from the Biology Dept., the Administration has effectively brought an end to our department,” Boehm wrote in his letter—a description that draws a stark parallel to the aftermath following the dissolution of our Philosophy Department where the staff, previously housed in Hutchinson Hall, have been moved out of their offices and split between Willis Hall and the Child Study Institute.
Boehm also mentions that, so far, SELS has failed to draw new majors into its programs. Apparently, SELS has begun a “Sustainability Initiative,” a plan to pay students to enter the program after “a year plus of ‘no-takers.’” It is hard to imagine that the Administration will continue the program if these enrollment trends continue, especially in light of the justification provided for the restructuring that has already occurred on campus: The ratio of Full-Time Enrolment to Faculty numbers.
You may recall the article we put up a few months back, “For the Record: A Defense of the Philosophy and Religion Program.” I know we keep referring to Philosophy as a comparison to this situation, but we only do so because this ‘restructuring’ happened to Philosophy first and, since the plan has already been in place for nearly a year, it is one of the only Departments where we are beginning to see the real ill effects of the Administration’s campaign to transform Kean.
However, it seems things could go rotten more quickly in Biology; symptoms of this disease are already manifesting themselves in ways the students can see: first on the list is “the relocation of Dr. Yu’s anatomy teaching rooms in a separate bldg. from where the lectures are held, with no prior consultation with [Dr.] Yu [or the students];” as well as forcing Dr. Boehm to teach BIO 3305 on the East Campus without a Lab; threatening professors with dismissal; calling on professors to author as many as “6 papers before tenure” instead of using their valuable time to meet with and advise students; the exile of Dr. Hayat who, according to the Biology Department’s Faculty page is the only ‘Distinguished Professor’ on the staff list, and who, according to Dr. Boehm, “Scientifically… put Kean on the map;” and lastly, the reduction teaching staff.
The Inside Higher Education article ‘Disappearing Departments’ also highlights the possibility of accreditation issues following the split-up of faculty between buildings as well as between schools in accordance with their involvement in either the B.A. or B.S. Majors.
Stripling explains that “bachelor of arts programs in science will be placed in one school, while bachelor of science programs in the same disciplines will be housed in another school. Since faculty frequently teach courses in both degree programs, there’s a practical concern about how to cover the teaching if faculty are divided between B.A. and B.S. programs…. The independent national accreditation for the B.S. program in chemistry, for instance, hinges in part on full-time faculty numbers. Those numbers would presumably be reduced if some chemistry professors were devoted purely to the B.A. program, as the plan appears to prescribe.”
What’s more is that we’re seeing similar Accreditation fears in Kean’s Graduate Program in Social Work where, after the undergraduate degree was deleted over the Summer and the undergrad staff were either released or given a graduate schedule, the program may not have enough full-time faculty to maintain itself in the eyes of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
In concluding his letter, Dr. Boehm displays emotions similar to those I’ve seen in several recent comments on this blog. “I now realize,” He says, “that leaving Kean has actually been a blessing in disguise…. I am glad to be free of it, and can only wish those of you who remain behind much success, and a fair amount of luck, as you will need it.”
I know that some of you have expressed to us that, if we give you definitive proof of this situation, you will leave the school—we urge you to consider that carefully. It is possible, as one of you commented after speaking with a Bio advisor, that nothing will realistically change for the program’s students or their degree expectations. It is more likely, as we’ve seen in the aftermath of other departments’ restructuring, that this is not the case. Either way, we also wish you luck; you all deserve your degrees and you all deserve to know the story—the best defense any of us have in such a sea of uncertainty is our ability to question. The more they know you know, the safer you and your Major Programs are.
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