Professor Don Steiner, who has a bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering, and a master’s and a doctorate in nuclear engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology after which he worked as a member of the research staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory before RPI in 1981 as institute professor of nuclear engineering. For the past 26 years he has maintained an active teaching and research schedule, teaching two courses per semester and developing four new courses for RPI. For over 15 years, he coordinated the capstone design course in nuclear engineering. He has mentored both undergraduate and graduate students in his research field, fusion energy development. From 1995 until 2002, he was chair of the environmental and energy engineering department. From 2002 until 2006, he directed the Nuclear Engineering Program in the mechanical, aeronautical, and nuclear engineering department. In 2005, he relinquished his tenure and his chair as institute professor and became a research professor in order “to create a slot for a hire in nuclear engineering.” Even as a research professor, he continued to teach until Fall 2007.
Steiner has also made valuable contributions to the institute in terms of service and has been an active participant in faculty governance. He served two separate terms as a member of the Faculty Senate and was appointed by the provost’s office to chair the Steering Committee for the most recent self study for the Middle States Review, which occurred between 2003 and 2005. He explained, “Every ten years, institutions of higher education must go through a comprehensive self-study and submit a report which is reviewed by a visiting team who, in turn, submit their own report to the institution including recommendations for improvement. During the recent Middle States self-study process a number of findings dealt with the problems of shared governance and communication at RPI. Yet when I received the first draft of our report most of those findings had been removed. Working with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, I was able to reinstate the ‘missing’ findings and submit an accurate report. The Middle States Evaluation Team Report recommended steps be taken to facilitate shared governance and improve open communication.”
In response to my question about his level of investment in RPI he replied, “I have been at RPI for nearly 26 years and have been engaged in a wide variety of activities here. I consider myself highly vested in the desire for the success of RPI. I am certainly more vested in RPI than the current provost.”
When asked how he felt upon learning that the trustees had defined research faculty out of the vote he answered, “I was disappointed but not surprised since the president and the Board have been ‘hostile’ to the faculty for over four years. The president has worked to isolate the Board from the faculty and the Board has allowed this isolation to occur.” He added, “governance is not the only issue at stake here. Integrity and trust are also involved. As a faculty member, I have come to question the truthfulness of the administration in its recent actions.”
Steiner explained how the disenfranchisement has “motivated me to be more outspoken about the deterioration in open communication and shared governance at RPI. Many research professors were former senior faculty at RPI. We feel that the pronouncements of the Board and the administration have been particularly disrespectful because we have been so vested in the success of RPI. In fact, I know of several colleagues who no longer give financial support to the Institute because of the actions of the president and Board.
When asked why research faculty should have the vote, he replied, “Any healthy organization should welcome diverse input from a variety of stakeholders. A university, in particular, should value open communication and shared governance.” I couldn’t agree more and question why an administration would take actions to alienate valuable, respected, committed members of the RPI faculty as such Professor Steiner.
Editor’s Note: “The Disenfranchised—Who are they?” is a three-part column granted to Linda Layne, Hale professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, to profile individuals in the RPI community who were directly affected by the 2006 Board of Trustees directive restricting the definition of faculty at Rensselaer.
