Department chair removals caused ‘unnecessary damage’ to SUNY-ESF’s reputation, faculty union president says

The SUNY system’s faculty union president on Wednesday voiced concern about SUNY-ESF’s abrupt removal of three department chairs in January.

Frederick Kowal, president of United University Professions, said in an email to union members that the removals, “caused unnecessary damage to the reputation of the institution.”

“The abrupt timing of this change, along with the conflicting messages as to why it was done, has negatively affected faculty, professional staff and students,” Kowal said.

The leadership shakeup occurred in mid-January, when President Quentin Wheeler and Vice Provost and Executive Vice President Nosa Egiebor told three SUNY-ESF department chairs to immediately step down from their positions just days before the start of the spring semester. The chairs will remain on the SUNY-ESF faculty, but not in a leadership role. 

Wheeler initially said in a campus-wide email the move was part of a university-wide policy change limiting department chairships to two three-year terms.

Donald Leopold, one of the department chairs removed by SUNY-ESF, disputed the reasoning behind his removal. Leopold has said he believed the policy change was a cover to remove the chairs from faculty leadership, and that Wheeler made it “crystal clear” in the January meeting that he blamed the chairs for his failures.

In an interview with The Daily Orange last month, Wheeler elaborated on the department chair removals, saying that the chairs as a group had not been “fully engaged” in a deliberative and collaborative decision-making process as part of senior college leadership.

Leopold said Wheeler called the department chairs “saboteurs” — a claim the president did not deny, when asked in an interview. Wheeler said the comments were made in a different context, but declined to elaborate further.

“The conflicting messages about the reason for the change, along with the defamatory comments directed at these three members, are not actions that we take lightly,” Kowal said.

UUP members are voting to request that Wheeler’s contract not be renewed and that the union review SUNY-ESF’s financial situation. The results of the vote are expected to be counted on Friday, according to an email from the SUNY-ESF UUP chapter president obtained by The D.O.