Another dean has announced she is stepping down after only 10 months at the position.
Donna Burgraff, dean of OU’s Chillicothe campus, is stepping down from her post. She will remain at the campus as an assistant professor. Burgraff made $130,000 this year.
“It’s a personnel matter,” said OU spokeswoman Linda Lockhart.
The resignation is effective immediately, Lockhart said. Dan Evans, executive dean of Regional Higher Education and vice provost of E-Learning, will assume Burgraff’s duties until May 31, when Martin Tuck, associate provost for academic affairs, will begin serving as interim dean.
Evans announced earlier this month he would be retiring at the end of the year. His last day will be June 30.
Ann Fidler, chief of staff to the provost, said she could not comment on the nature of Burgraff’s departure.
“A personnel matter has to do with an individual’s employment relationship with the university,” Fidler said.
A May 17 letter from Faculty Senate’s Professional Ethics Committee noted a grievance was filed against Burgraff by Dennis Deane, a professor of fine arts at OU-Chillicothe.
In the grievance, Deane complained Burgraff improperly dissolved the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education division Fall Quarter, in violation of faculty handbook procedures, which state each faculty appointment must be assigned to a campus, an academic division and an academic discipline.
The committee found Burgraff had not adequately explained to Deane and others whether or not the division had been dissolved, leaving them “in confusion and frustration,” according to the report.
“The Professional Relations Committee finds that Dean Burgraff exhibited poor judgment and perhaps misrepresented faculty positions on the matter of the dissolution ... to the provost,” the report states.
Deane declined to comment on the grievance, saying he wanted to wait until OU President Roderick McDavis makes a statement about the committee’s recommendations.
Becky Watts, McDavis’ chief of staff, said his office received the report May 17.
“The president is still in the process of evaluating it,” Watts said.
McDavis will make a final decision on the PRC’s recommendations.
“The committee was astonished,” said Sherrie Gradin, who chaired the PRC. “This simply should not have taken place.”
Gradin said that as a result of the confusion, the faculty members in the department were unsure as to whom they worked for.
“We found her decision to not communicate clearly with her faculty led to a very undesirable set of circumstances,” Gradin said. “People like Deane believed they had no academic home or functioning bylaws, and that is not good.”
Burgraff, who was reviewed for tenure when she came to OU in the event she would serve as a faculty member, will continue to work at OU’s Chillicothe campus as a faculty member, Fidler said. She added that Burgraff’s official position, as well as what she will teach, has not been determined.
A search will begin for a permanent dean fall 2012, Lockhart said, adding Tuck will serve in the position for at least a year.
Tuck said he had been interested in a dean position.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Tuck said. “I’m looking forward to working with the faculty out there and helping them reach their potential.”
Since he has never worked on the campus, Tuck said he would spend much of his first few months getting situated.
“I’ve got a learning curve,” Tuck said. “I’m going to spend a lot of time talking to people, listening to people, basically working together with everyone out there to help them reach their goals.”
Burgraff started as dean of the campus effective last Aug. 1, following the retirement of Richard Bebee a month earlier, according to a university news release. Before coming to OU, Burgraff had been a dean at Southwest Minnesota State University.
“Donna has made valuable contributions to the campus and the community during her time as dean,” Evans said in the release. “She has great passion for the regional campus academic mission, and I am pleased that she will continue to be part of our efforts to serve the students of Southeastern Ohio as an associate professor on the Chillicothe campus.”
Burgraff is the eleventh top OU administrator to announce her departure this year. Among the other departures are a vice president, three assistant vice presidents, an executive dean, three deans and two department directors.
Burgraff verbally resigned from her position, and there is no letter of resignation available, said John Biancamano, director of OU’s Office of Legal Affairs.
Neither Burgraff nor Evans was available for additional comment, and calls and emails to both were not returned.
—Rebecca McKinsey contributed to this story
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