As the spring semester drew to a close and the summer heat started beating down on Troy, the campus began to hear reports of several high-profile departures from the RPI administration. One was that of Vice President for Institute Advancement Donald Fry, whose sudden resignation was announced by an unusually curt message to the community by President Shirley Ann Jackson. This wasn’t the first time Fry left a senior administrative post after a short tenure—he held a similar role at Colorado State University for just over two years before resigning under similarly unusual circumstances—and his departure from Rensselaer raised several questions about the state of his division that remain unanswered even today.
While Fry’s decision to pursue opportunities elsewhere certainly raises eyebrows, far more concerning is the news that three of the Institute’s five academic deans have accepted positions at other universities and will not be returning to RPI in the fall. Dean of Engineering Alan Cramb is leaving to become senior vice president and provost at the Illinois Institute of Technology; Dean of Science Wei Zhao has accepted a position as rector at the University of Macau in China; and Dean of Architecture Alan Balfour will become dean of the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
These three departures are far less mysterious in nature; all announcements were accompanied by letters from Jackson praising their accomplishments while at Rensselaer, and all three are leaving for positions of equal or greater authority and prestige. I have heard nothing to indicate that the close timing is anything but an unfortunate coincidence. What is disconcerting, however, is the effect that it may have on already strained faculty-administration relations.
The bitter dispute over the role of non-tenured faculty has been raging for over a year and a half now, and the suspension of the Faculty Senate reaches its first anniversary this summer. Feelings have been hurt, relationships damaged, and all efforts to reach a mutually-acceptable compromise have thus far been unsuccessful. The deans of each of RPI’s five schools have represented one of the last bridges between the two groups; they were longstanding administrators respected by their faculties as well as both the president’s cabinet and the Board of Trustees.
Jackson, in her 10th year as president, is strikingly unpopular amongst faculty members—a fact that hurts her ability to effectively govern the Institute. Furthermore, Robert Palazzo just completed his freshman year as full provost, and he is closely associated with the suspension of the Senate; he simply doesn’t command enough respect as an administrator to adequately address the tensions that run throughout the school. This atmosphere is destructive in an academic environment which depends on strong, congenial relations between the various players involved. Without the stability offered by the deans, I cannot help but be afraid that the already tenuous situation will fall apart entirely.
The president, her cabinet, and the Board of Trustees need to reach out to the faculty in an attempt to save the academic environment from total collapse. Likewise, the faculty needs to be prepared to work with the administration to come to some sort of compromise. Both sides absolutely must be willing to make some significant concessions. At this point, saving face really isn’t much of an option for anybody; I would hate to see the Institute torn apart by pride.
This fall will mark a lot of new beginnings throughout Rensselaer. Let us come together to turn over a new leaf in the governance issue as well. We are all human, we all make mistakes. That shouldn’t stop us from reconciling our differences and making a fresh start.
