"Musical" Chairs re-shuffle ongoing at TSU?
Summer should be a time of rest and reflection for everyone, but instead it appears that the Deans and Provost Harris appear to be busy playing "musical chairs" at TSU in some of the schools on campus:
School of Communication (SOC)
Dr. Michael Berryhill is still listed as the Chair of the Journalism Department but it has been confirmed that he is no longer the Chair and it is rumored that the new chair is Dr. Vera Hawkins. Another professor- Dr. Toneisha Taylor- seems to have arrived on campus recently in order to chair a new department in SOC- Communication Studies. There is a possibility that she was hired from PVAMU with connections through the Provost office and Dr. Cavill. We are unaware if Dean Brown-Burton had complete involvement with these changes in chairs and departments.
School of Public Affairs (SOPA)
All 3 of SOPA's departments- Administration of Justice (Dr. David Baker), Political Science (Dr. Michael Adams) and Urban Planning (Dr. Sherri Smith) have emails from Dean Kieh to replace interim chairs over the summer. Emails shared with Transparency State appear to prove that SOPA departments do not seem to be able to majority vote in their own chair, leading us to believe that Dean Kieh wants to solely choose the next chairs and likely does not believe in true shared governance with choosing a department chair. It is possible that a majority of faculty may prefer one candidate over another, but Dean Kieh could easily overrule the majority vote with his favored candidate.
College of Education (COE)
Seems like COE is going through proposed chair changes also. There have been rumors that Dean Poats had been considering retirement in 2020-2021 and we wonder whom will be next Interim Dean. Perhaps Dr. Javus Cavill now that he is no longer Faculty Senate President? There have also been rumors ongoing which seem to confirm there are chair changes being made in some of the departments in COE.
All of these summer changes are vexing- why is there a rush to make changes to the chair positions in the summer when we still don't know if we will even be re-opening in the fall and in what capacity? There has been no transparency on fall enrollment numbers or budgets, no announcements on freezes besides a 4 day furlough which is old news (TSU does furloughs every few years). Doing things in the summer could have negative optics; it almost appears the Provost/President are trying to make major department changes while the faculty is unable to be on campus. We urge the President to consider holding off on these chair changes until the fall.
School of Communication (SOC)
Dr. Michael Berryhill is still listed as the Chair of the Journalism Department but it has been confirmed that he is no longer the Chair and it is rumored that the new chair is Dr. Vera Hawkins. Another professor- Dr. Toneisha Taylor- seems to have arrived on campus recently in order to chair a new department in SOC- Communication Studies. There is a possibility that she was hired from PVAMU with connections through the Provost office and Dr. Cavill. We are unaware if Dean Brown-Burton had complete involvement with these changes in chairs and departments.
School of Public Affairs (SOPA)
All 3 of SOPA's departments- Administration of Justice (Dr. David Baker), Political Science (Dr. Michael Adams) and Urban Planning (Dr. Sherri Smith) have emails from Dean Kieh to replace interim chairs over the summer. Emails shared with Transparency State appear to prove that SOPA departments do not seem to be able to majority vote in their own chair, leading us to believe that Dean Kieh wants to solely choose the next chairs and likely does not believe in true shared governance with choosing a department chair. It is possible that a majority of faculty may prefer one candidate over another, but Dean Kieh could easily overrule the majority vote with his favored candidate.
College of Education (COE)
Seems like COE is going through proposed chair changes also. There have been rumors that Dean Poats had been considering retirement in 2020-2021 and we wonder whom will be next Interim Dean. Perhaps Dr. Javus Cavill now that he is no longer Faculty Senate President? There have also been rumors ongoing which seem to confirm there are chair changes being made in some of the departments in COE.
All of these summer changes are vexing- why is there a rush to make changes to the chair positions in the summer when we still don't know if we will even be re-opening in the fall and in what capacity? There has been no transparency on fall enrollment numbers or budgets, no announcements on freezes besides a 4 day furlough which is old news (TSU does furloughs every few years). Doing things in the summer could have negative optics; it almost appears the Provost/President are trying to make major department changes while the faculty is unable to be on campus. We urge the President to consider holding off on these chair changes until the fall.
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