At least once a day, a student finds her or his way to the Department of Women’s Studies wondering if it is possible to complete a minor or a major, or to begin graduate study; wondering if Women’s Studies is in fact, still here.
Well, we are!
After an amazing whirlwind of change and an unprecedented degree of uncertainty, the Department “survives” as an academic space to produce Women’s Studies scholarship, teaching and engagement separate from and in relation to other disciplines throughout the University.
What has changed in Women’s Studies at USF?
* We a have nationally-known group of scholars in our Visiting Professors in the areas of feminist pedagogy, feminist economics, and women’s health research.
* We have established a chapter of Iota, Iota, Iota (aka, Triota), the National Women’s Studies Honor Society.
*We have a new office manager, Sheela Fernandez. Sheela brings to Women’s Studies over 18 years of administrative office experience. Having lived in India, Malaysia, Singapore and now the U.S., she has an intricate knowledge of diverse cultures. Please stop by our Department and meet this fascinating professional.
*Our former office manager, Irina Raimez-Fernandez, has been assigned to another unit. All of us in Women’s Studies over the years have been so privileged to work with her. Her competence and charisma are legendary. Irina has agreed to join the Women’s Studies Department Advisory Board. We are indeed lucky, as the Department can continue to benefit from her wisdom and remarkable leadership talents.
*Some of the most celebrated feminist and Women’s Studies scholars from universities across the nation have joined forces with the Department at USF to offer cutting edge scholarship in critical feminist pedagogy and research this academic year at USF.
They are: bell hooks, Jennifer Baumgardner, AnaLouise Keating, Jacqui Alexander, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Chandra Mohanty, Phyllis Chesler, Mark Anthony Neal, Amit Rai, Layli Phillips, Aimee Carrillo Rowe, Christine (Cricket) Keating, Aaronette White, and Barbara Scott Winkler
Join us on Nov. 17 at 3PM in the TECO room for a presentation by Jennifer Baumgardner, in the first of our series.
*We have partnered with the American Association of University Women (Florida), the Sarasota/Manatee--National Organization for Women and the Sarasota Commission on the Status of Women to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the “Report on Gender Disparities in Salaries of Full Professors at the University of South Florida in 1998: Evidence, Consequences, and Recommendations for Solutions” on Nov. 3, 2008 at 3PM presented by Professor Pam Hallock Muller.
So, what is Women’s Studies anyway?
What is it that a discrete discipline in a Department of Women’s Studies creates that is distinct from feminist or gendered knowledge production in older and more familiar disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences?
Many of you may remember the pivotal tasks of the creation of community, the giving voice, and the empowerment of women as the cornerstone of Women’s Studies.
Since that time, Women’s Studies has developed into a discrete discipline that has its own herstory/history, “bodies of knowledge, sets of theories, associated pedagogies, academic projects and curriculum challenges and strategies.”
Faculty and students in the Department of Women’s Studies produce, evaluate, perform, and engage Women’s Studies’ content and processes.
Saving Women’s Studies: Part of the Tradition of the Struggle for Women’s Rights
It is not every generation of Women’s Studies’ students that can participate so fully and so successfully in the long struggle for women’s rights in the places where they work and study.
From a woman’s right to vote, to a woman’s right to attain an education; from a woman’s right to keep her own earnings rather than turning these over to her husband, to a women’s right to equal pay; from a women’s right embrace motherhood, to a women’s right to choose---last Spring, our students fought for a woman’s right to think, differently and a scholar’s right to produce knowledge that is in a discrete discipline, knowledge that can only be called “Women’s Studies.”
It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said that “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Our students insisted on carrying the dream of equality and fairness for all of us last Spring when it was unpopular and when it was not safe. They exhibited tremendous civic courage. And in so doing, they secured a future for the next generation of Women’s Studies faculty and students at USF.
For more information, please see our newsletter: https://frontend.cas.usf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.scribd.com/doc/6083421/1fall-Newsletter-Paper-Version
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Women's Studies Department Fall Newsletter
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
History of Resource Allocation Leading to A Departmnent in Peril
Click on the link to see an overview of how the Department of Women's Studies was systematically deprived of resources over time....
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
GRIEVANCES FILED OVER ACADEMIC-AFFAIRS REORGANIZATION
United Faculty of Florida -- USF ChapterBiweekly Newsletter EXTRAJuly 15, 2008
The United Faculty of Florida is representing several faculty members who filed individual grievances July 11 in response to the reorganization of Academic Affairs.
The grievants are from the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business Administration.
On June 12, the provost announced that he was moving entire units between colleges and creating a new college out of FMHI and several departments from Arts and Sciences.
The grievances assert that the reorganization occurred without either notice to the grievants or an opportunity for the grievants to provide input.
The grievances assert that a unilateral reorganization of colleges in this manner violates Section 5.4 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (on-line at http://w3.usf.edu/~uff/ratification/CBA0407.pdf), which reads: "On the part of the Administration, Academic Responsibility implies a commitment actively to foster within the University a climate favorable to responsible exercise of freedom, by adherence to principles of shared governance, which require that in the development of academic policies and processes, the professional judgments of employees are of primary importance."
A resolution approved at a chapter meeting this spring opposed unilateral reorganizations that went beyond what was necessary for budget cuts, and the chapter notified both the administration and the Board of Trustees that reorganizations required more discussion and consultation and that the process of reorganization should be separated from the timeline for budget cuts.
A letter to the provost this spring from the majority of chairs in Arts and Sciences expressed parallel concerns and made a similar request for more measured deliberations about reorganization.
Instead of responding to the concerns of CAS chairs and the chapter, the provost announced reorganization as a fait accompli June 12, without giving the entire faculty in affected colleges an opportunity to provide input on either the specifics or the general shape of the reorganization.
"Only a minority of faculty in the affected colleges thinks that both the process and the results of reorganization were appropriate," chapter president Sherman Dorn said.
"At least a substantial plurality of faculty thinks that either the process or the results are inappropriate. "
At a great university, faculty are at the heart of crucial decisions about the future. An administrator who acts as if he or she believes in benevolent despotism only increases the cynicism and erodes the morale of the faculty.
In a time of severe budget cuts, the University of South Florida cannot afford either.
"While more UFF members in the affected colleges might want to participate, the collective bargaining agreement requires that grievances be filed within 30 days of a contractual violation. July 11 represented the "safe date" deadline after the reorganization's announcement on June 12, and grievances were filed though many who might want to join were out of town.
Monday, July 14, 2008
USF ISLAC Program being shut down
USF is reducing the ISLAC to its minimum expression which is essentially shutting it down. Dr. Jorge Nef, Director and Dr. Cristina Maria Espinosa, Asst. Director have resigned. Click here to watch Univision report.
For more information about ISLAC click on the link below.
I S L A C Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
USF Polytechnic to offer new degree program
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 11:46 AM EDT
Tampa Bay Business Journal
University of South Florida Polytechnic will launch a new bachelor of general studies degree program in the fall. It is designed for working adults who have some college education but have been out of school for at least three years.
The new program will provide a quick route to a bachelor's degree and give students the ability to attend graduate school, a release said.
USF Polytechnic, based in Lakeland, initially will offer concentrations in business, information technology, aging studies and women's studies.
All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Twelve and counting
By: Harrison Reed, Staff Writer
Posted: 7/7/08
USF may face an exodus of teaching talent after this year's budget cuts and departmental restructuring. The University has already lost 12 faculty members to other schools.
"I have 12 letters of resignation," said Senior Vice Provost Dwayne Smith. "Typically at this time we have about five to six."
Faculty members said that better salaries, research opportunities and academic outlook have attracted them to other schools. Most recently, Carolyn Eichner of the Department of Women's Studies and Kennan Ferguson, director of Interdisciplinary Social Studies, have declined USF's counteroffers and will accept positions at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"We took a hard look at the present and future of the University of South Florida and decided we do not share its commitments and direction," Eichner and Ferguson stated in their resignation letter.
Their letter specifically cites the controversial absorption of the women's studies department into the College of Arts and Sciences as an example of the administration's commitments."
The current administration's reorganization efforts will almost certainly leave women's studies a department in name only, with neither a chair nor budgetary autonomy," they stated.
Despite the increase in resignations, Smith said that the administration will deal with each faculty member on a case-by-case basis rather than reassess its commitments.
USF will continue to counter the offers from other universities, but the state's stagnant economy makes Florida's professors easy targets for out-of-state universities, Smith said.
"If it's a matter of seeking more money and more resources, those are just in short supply right now," he said.While USF might come close to matching the salaries offered by other schools, research funds are scarcer at USF, he said.
"Often times what has been included with their offer from another institution would be some really nice start-up package that includes really nice infrastructure support," Smith said. "That's often what we can't meet."
Other schools are also facing financial difficulties, Eichner said, but they have managed to use their resources to strengthen their academic and research goals."(The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is) prioritizing increasing their research profile," she said.
"USF could probably come close to the salary (they offered), but not the research funding."USF will use temporary fill-ins to supplement the faculty ranks while they target potential new hires, Smith said.
Despite budget concerns, USF should still draw highly qualified professors."We will have some fairly high profile people coming in with this year's new cohort of faculty," he said. "We have gone out and recruited them aggressively."Smith said he remains optimistic that incoming faculty will sufficiently replace the numbers lost to resignations.
In years past, new hires from other universities have far exceeded the number of faculty members leaving USF and that it will probably be the case this year, he said.Other high-profile resignations from USF this year include Chief Financial Officer Carl Carlucci, robotics expert Robin Murphy, and John Skvoretz, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
© Copyright 2008 The Oracle
Tax cuts bankrupt college education
Posted: 7/7/08"
I can't guarantee you that there won't be some increase in class size. There may be some lessening of the selection of courses students can take as we focus, and there may be some low enrolled programs we begin to phase out."
Those were the words of Terry Hickey, UCF provost and executive vice president, on the possible impact that the recently announced budget cuts may have.
There haven't been any announcements as to which programs will be eliminated and which will stay, but you can bet some of the more unusual majors may not make the cut. At the University of South Florida, the women's studies department and Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean have already seen the axe fall.
The students at USF held large protests outside the administration building trying to get answers about why those programs had to be cut altogether when they felt like money could have been diverted from much larger programs with larger budgets.Students at UCF may not get the chance to protest because according to Hickey, "a silent reduction in faculty and staff has been made to compensate for the loss."
This means that every professor who either retired or quit this year won't get replaced. Instead, the professors who did decide to stick it out will be faced with merging the open classes with their own or teaching additional classes.
Already there are 68 faculty and 141 staff positions that will remain vacant for at least another year. On top of that, there are about 100 additional faculty and staff positions that will be cut from the budget as well. Hickey said that departments have been doing an excellent job of "stretching themselves and sharing responsibility," but the only real responsibility here is on the shoulders of the Florida legislature.
Naturally we can't place all of the blame on the UCF administration because it is only doing what it believes is in the best interest in the future of university.
We would, however, like to see a better allocation of funds though, because there seem to be many areas that aren't taking much of the brunt from the budget cuts while the most important areas are getting cut down limb from limb.
No, the majority of the fault can be placed on the Florida government who has worked in direct opposition to the best interests of the State University System.
Obviously Florida is going through some economically turbulent times right now, especially in real estate, which is one of Florida's largest industries. Yet, tax cuts and tax breaks are not the way to fix our problems. Governor Charlie Crist pushed for the passage of Amendment 1 earlier this year which will cut $9.3 billion in taxes over the next five years.
The amendment passed with little opposition from homeowners. The tremendous opposition came from the people who foresaw the kinds of disasters the budget cuts could bring.
Teachers unions, firefighters and local government leaders were quick to point out that while you might save a few hundred dollars a year on property taxes, the public services that everyone enjoys will suffer significant cutbacks. Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, said that major tax cuts expose the state's education system to significant revenue challenges, which are obviously being felt at UCF and other state schools. "Floridians are concerned about the economy, so I think a tax cut is important to them," Crist said. "I'm pleased for the people of Florida." Too bad Crist didn't think about how his tax cuts would affect students getting a public education.
The legislature is shortchanging the future of this state and the country by compounding the problems in the already lackluster Florida educational system.Before Amendment 1 passed, Crist promised to offset the tax cuts in his education budget.
From the current state of affairs we can only conclude that either he forgot about his promise or his budget was flawed from the beginning - most likely the latter will prove to be the most accurate.
For now, students in the State University System will have to face the likelihood that they won't graduate in four years and that their class sizes will only continue to grow. No one likes to pay taxes, but guess what - taxes pay for the things we take for granted.
Our university already has the highest student-to-faculty ratio in the nation - what other negative lists will we dominate once the budget cuts kick in? It's time to let the Florida legislature know that tax cuts are only temporary Band-Aids and they are not the way to solve our economic problems?
© Copyright 2008 Central Florida Future
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Women's Studies department at USF is losing professor Carolyn Eichner
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the departure of Carolyn Eichner from USF. This is a terrible blow to Women’s Studies and to Women’s History at USF.
While I am saddened, I indeed understand. The circumstances of the last few years and especially the last few months have made the pursuing of feminist scholarship and feminist pedagogy untenable and reflect not simply anti-intellectualism, but a specific form called anti-intellectual feminist harassment*.
I thank Carolyn for her fearlessness and tireless advocacy on behalf of Women’s Studies. Because of her, the Department has had a voice while being strangled. That counts for much—oppression needs a witness.
I know that everyone will join with me to wish Carolyn and Kennan much success.
Kim Vaz
************************************************
June 19, 2008
Brain drain continues, two more profs leave USF
Another day, another departure (or two) from a state university. The Women's Studies department at USF is losing professor Carolyn Eichner, and the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences department is losing Kennan Ferguson, who submitted their resignations yesterday. (See the letter here here.)
USF tried to keep them with salary negotiations, but the professors say salary isn't as important to them as the value USF puts on "research and pedagogy."
They're leaving for the University of Wisconsin, where they feel their research and academic goals will get far more support. In contrast, the professors write, "the administration's claim of Women's Studies' centrality to the university appears to be merely semantics."
Source: Tambabay.com
*************************************
*“a serious threat to academic freedom, occurs when 1) any policy, action, statement and/or behaviour has the intent or the effect of discouraging or preventing women’s freedom of lawful action, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression; 2) or when any policy, action, statement, and/or behaviour creates an environment in which the appropriate application of feminist theories or methodologies to research, scholarship, and teaching is devalued, discouraged, or altogether thwarted; 3) or when any policy, action, statement, and/or behaviour creates an environment in which research, scholarship, and teaching pertaining to women, gender or gender inequities is devalued, discouraged, or altogether thwarted.” This definition focuses on consequences and not intention. See Annette Kolodny’s Failing the Future
Friday, June 13, 2008
USF realigns departments and faces further budget cuts
06/13/08 Seán Kinane WMNF Evening News Friday
Click here to listen.
Florida’s universities received notice of further budget cuts this week – at the same time that the University of South Florida is announcing tuition increases, restructuring, and a dean’s resignation.
On Thursday USF announced a realignment of academic departments, colleges and schools. The university’s largest college was most affected. Under the restructuring, the College of Arts and Sciences will be divided into three schools: Behavioral and Social Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences. Harry Vanden is Professor of Government and International Affairs at USF.
“I think it comes as a surprise to a lot of people in the College of Arts and Sciences and elsewhere in the university. I believe people knew that there were various organizational plans afoot. I think it would be fair to say that most of the faculty feel they were not involved in the process of realignment and that many of them would prefer not to have the realignment as it is,” Vanden said.
As part of the realignment, two institutes and one department will be added to the revamped College of Arts and Sciences -- the economics department, the Institute on Black Life and the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean, or ISLAC. The Women’s Studies and Africana Studies departments had been concerned about being dismantled or joined into larger school. They managed to maintain their departmental status. Kim Vaz, who is chair of the Women’s Studies Department, said she has concerns about the realignment.
During the spring semester, students led teach-ins and rallies to save the two departments, including a one that culminated in a 200-person march to the administration building in April for an hour-long meeting with Provost Ralph Wilcox. But two months later, Chair of the Africana Studies Department Deborah Plant said there was still “a lot of uncertainty,” even following a meeting on the subject Friday.
One source of the confusion is how administrative consolidation would occur, Plant said.
Government and International Affairs professor Harry Vanden agrees that the realignment plan has not alleviated any confusion.
“I think unfortunately it has further added to the feeling of disorganization and perhaps even chaos that many people feel in the university particularly the faculty and also amongst the staff. There have been layoffs and this is very concerning to people,” Vanden said.
Ralph Wilcox is the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at USF. He said the realignment will reduce administrative overhead by creating the three schools within the CAS, "that will encourage greater synergy across the humanities.”
On Thursday, USF trustees voted to increase in-state graduate and undergraduate tuition by six to 10 percent – an increase of about 105 dollars per semester for undergrads. Out-of-state graduate students in some programs will see their tuitions decrease by 10 percent, Provost Ralph Wilcox said.
“We want to do utmost consistent with our strategic priorities of attracting the best and brightest minds to the University of South Florida. We wanted to insure that we were being competitive in our pricing and our ability to recruit non-Florida resident students at the graduate level only to USF,” Wilcox said.
In an email sent last Sunday, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, John Skvoretz, announced that he will resign, effective August 6th. The realignment of his college was one reason Skvoretz cited for his resignation. He wrote, quote, “It has been extremely difficult over the past six months to see the advocating of proposals for its potential dismantling with quite limited considerationof [sic] the up and down sides of such an [sic] large and potentially contentious undertaking.”
“We agreed that now was as good a time as any, not that there’s ever any good time, but, to seek some new visionary and strong leadership in the College of Arts and Sciences,” Wilcox said.
The day after Skvoretz’ email, USF announced that Communications Professor Eric Eisenberg would be interim dean of Arts and Sciences until a new dean can be hired.
“Eric is a widely sought after leader and expert in organizational change and in particular, leadership for organizational change in difficult times,” Wilcox said.
Compounding the USF’s financial problems, Governor Crist announced on Thursday that his office will hold back 4 percent of the budgets of all state agencies, including universities, because sales tax and other revenues are anticipated to be below expectations. That means about another 14 million dollar cut for USF. But Wilcox said the school was somewhat prepared for additional cuts.
Photo by Seán Kinane/WMNF
USF realignment
Previous WMNF coverage
Thursday, June 12, 2008
USF Overhauls Colleges To Counter Budget Cuts
USF Overhauls Colleges To Counter Budget Cuts
Tampa Bay Online
updated 4:32 p.m. ET, Thurs., June. 12, 2008
By ADAM EMERSON of The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - University of South Florida leaders have swept through their various colleges and reworked the way they will deliver a higher education to meet the grim budget realities they now face.
The biggest changes will hit the College of Arts and Sciences, USF's largest. Although the college gains some institutes that stood alone at the university, it will undergo an administrative overhaul and lose some disciplines to other colleges.
The changes prompted the college's dean, John Skvoretz, to step down earlier this week. Skvoretz, who will remain on the USF faculty, said he was dismayed watching what he called the "dismantling" of his college.
USF Provost Ralph Wilcox, however, told faculty in a letter today that a multimillion-dollar budget cut from the state "will demand changes in both institutional structure and behavior."
The university will develop a new college featuring some disciplines formerly housed in Arts and Sciences. The schools of aging studies and social work, for instance, will align with the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute to become the new college.
In addition, the College of Arts and Sciences will be rebuilt around three schools: behavioral and social sciences; humanities; and sciences.
Some of those schools will include disciplines that had their own administration and support staff, but now will share resources with others in the college during these leaner times.
There will be challenges, Wilcox said, and there may be more changes. "I have every confidence that, with careful thought and deliberation, reasonable people will develop reasonable solutions to the challenges we face," he said.
Altogether, the university lost $35.6 million in revenue from the state over two fiscal years, a cut that has cost the university hundreds of jobs.
USF President Judy Genshaft told trustees today that the university has laid off about 42 employees, which include 34 staff members, five administrators and three faculty members.
The pink slips won't stop there, though. As the university sets aside an additional $15 million in anticipation of another state cut, officials plan as many as 30 more layoffs, said Trudie Frecker, USF's interim chief financial officer.
The rest of the cuts will eliminate vacant positions.
The budget-cutting proposals USF announced last month have the greatest impact on the College of Arts and Sciences. Of the nearly $22 million the university will cut from the academic operations on the Tampa campus, about $7 million will come out of Arts and Sciences.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25126018/
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
As long as they don't cut football
By Howard Troxler, Times Columnist Published Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:50 PM
There was a little blip in the news the other day about the resignation of the dean of arts and sciences at the University of South Florida.
This news did not exactly set off shock waves across Tampa Bay. Maybe it would have been a bigger deal if Hulk Hogan's family were somehow involved.
And yet, the resignation of this dean, John Skvoretz, is part of a story much bigger than the Hulkster — in fact, it is one of the biggest stories brewing in Florida.
Skvoretz came to USF a little more than three years ago from the University of South Carolina amid high hopes.
On the research side, see, USF goes like gangbusters. The school could well cure cancer one day and reach the nation's elite research tiers. That would be great. All for it.
On the other hand, I have never heard anyone pound a lectern and demand that USF churn out the nation's top historians, musicians or philosophers. This is understandable, considering the economics involved, but unfortunate.
So this Skvoretz fellow, a sociologist by trade, was going to work on the mix. Three years later he is quitting, getting out just before a wave of reorganization that should be announced soon.
In a statement mild by Jerry Springer standards, but a tad in-your-face for a university bureaucracy, Skvoretz said he could not abide proposals for the "potential dismantling" of the college, with only "limited consideration" of the consequences.
This is one more thing happening against a backdrop of higher-ed budget cuts across the state, and continued battles over whether Florida's universities will be under the political control of the Legislature or an independent Board of Governors.
At USF this year, the budget cuts are about $35-million.
At the University of Florida, $47-million.
At Florida State University, $32-million.
We are already into a "brain drain" as some of Florida's university leaders and faculty are lured to states that appreciate them more. North Carolina's university system, for example, recently declared this is a fine time to be plucking talent from Florida.
High-profile faculty or administrators have left for Pennsylvania and Iowa, for Northwestern and Tulane, for Ohio and North Carolina. There has been a drumbeat of departure reports.
"My wife and I don't want to leave, but this is the worst it's ever been," Charles Figley, 62, an FSU trauma expert leaving for Tulane University after nearly two decades, said in one recent article. "It's just not a good place for academics these days."
Despite all this, there are still some Floridians who will say:
So what? Who needs a bunch of crybaby professors anyway? Let 'em leave. The universities need to slash their budgets just like everybody else, anyway. And so forth.
But me, I am a child of the South who believes this above all else concerning education: No state will become great and remain great without a great state university.
That includes scientific research, but it also includes the study of poetry and philosophy, painting and dancing.
If you agree, don't tell me. Tell your legislator. Look 'em up and call or send an e-mail, and say: "Somehow, you have gotten the notion that this is the Florida that I want. You are wrong.
Change it."
In any case, we will have the state that we deserve.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
USF Arts-Sciences Dean Resigning, Cites Budget Cuts
By ADAM EMERSON
The Tampa Tribune, Published: June 10, 2008
TAMPA - The dean of the University of South Florida's largest college told faculty that he is stepping down and expressed dismay that the university's budget-balancing plans zeroed in on his programs.
John Skvoretz, who has led the College of Arts and Sciences since 2005, wrote in an e-mail to faculty Sunday night that it was hard watching the university weigh proposals that would dismantle the college.
The budget-cutting proposals USF announced last month have the greatest impact on the College of Arts and Sciences, which houses programs as varied as Africana studies and anthropology, along with chemistry and criminal justice.
Of the nearly $22 million the university will cut from the academic operations on the Tampa campus, about $7 million will come out of the College of Arts and Sciences, or about 32 percent of the burden.
"I carefully considered the fit between the type and style of the leadership I can provide and the type and style of the leadership the College needs at this point in time and concluded, reluctantly, that the fit is no longer there," Skvoretz said in his e-mail.
In an interview Monday, Provost Ralph Wilcox said he agreed and accepted Skvoretz's resignation. "It was time for new leadership," Wilcox said.
In a separate e-mail Monday to faculty members, Wilcox praised the dean's leadership during a time when the college grew with students and faculty. Skvoretz also led the college through a time when it produced more degrees and brought in more research funding, Wilcox said.
He noted, however, that the college is in a time of transition and that "the coming months and years will call for some difficult decision-making as we continue to focus on our strategic path to the future."
Wilcox named an interim dean, Eric Eisenberg, a professor and former chairman of USF's communications department.
Eisenberg's job will not only include improving student success and scholarly output, Wilcox said. He also must focus on boosting faculty morale.
Skvoretz, who previously led the liberal arts college at the University of South Carolina, intends to remain at USF and resume teaching and research in his specialty, social network analysis. His last day as dean is Aug. 6.
In recent weeks, Wilcox and other USF leaders have weighed plans to take some disciplines out of the College of Arts and Sciences and move them to other colleges at the university.
In his e-mail, Skvoretz wrote, "It has been extremely difficult over the past six months to see the advocating of proposals for its potential dismantling with quite limited consideration of the up and down sides of such a large and potentially contentious undertaking."
One proposal calls for removing all science departments from the college and incorporate them into the College of Engineering, said Wilcox, who added that he doesn't plan to endorse that.
The College of Arts and Sciences may undergo significant restructuring, however. The university is eliminating 170 vacant faculty positions on its Tampa campus. Of those, 41 are in the College of Arts and Sciences.
With fewer faculty members, administrators plan to reduce the available seats in course sections by 5 percent. The reductions have hit the College of Arts and Sciences hardest.
Skvoretz declined to speak much further, but wrote in a separate e-mail Monday to reporters that "Arts & Sciences is a large and diverse College and leading it can be compared to juggling chain saws while keeping 20 plates spinning - and that's when things are going well!"
Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com
Thursday, May 22, 2008
President presents budget reduction proposal
By: Amy Mariani and Harrison Reed, Staff Writers
University System has ever seen," said President Judy Genshaft.Genshaft, however, said that although these cuts must be made, no programs, departments or tenure-earning faculty will be eliminated. University Police and financial aid will also avoid any budget cuts."No majors or minors are cut," she said.
© Copyright 2008 The Oracle
