SSU’s liberal arts faculty caucus votes to investigate 2023 faculty non-renewals

Savannah State University (SSU) faculty within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) voted to investigate whether the university’s leadership failed to follow protocol when the school did not renew contracts for 13 faculty last summer.

According to email records shared with the Savannah Morning News (SMN), Jordan Dominy, an associate professor of English and chair of the CLASS faculty caucus for the SSU faculty senate, requested a meeting between the CLASS caucus and interim President Cynthia Robinson Alexander and interim Provost Richard Miller. The request was initially sent on Feb. 27, following SMN’s Feb. 21 report on possible protocol violations during the August 2023 faculty non-renewal process.

To date Miller and Alexander have refused to discuss the non-renewals with the CLASS caucus. In response to questions from SMN regarding the non-renewals, Miller stated, “We can't respond to something that we were not aware of, that we weren't involved with.”

Miller started as interim provost in September 2023, after the non-renewal process in question had occurred and faculty decisions had been made. However, Alexander had signed off on the non-renewals in July 2023, less than a month after she began. The main question for her is: Why wasn’t there more scrutiny given both how soon the form came across her desk and the fact that moving forward with the non-renewals in July 2023 meant that submission of the form would violate USG’s own policies that were listed on the form?

Alexander continues to ignore SMN’s requests for an interview to address the non-renewals as well as additional questions following recent unrest regarding student protests over the potential deactivation of the Visual and Performing Arts program.

Savannah State faculty concerns: Termination of 13 faculty may have violated University System protocols

CLASS votes to investigate, not one ‘no’

More than a month has passed since Dominy’s initial request for a meeting with Alexander and Miller. CLASS Faculty had been told that any meeting that may occur will not entertain a discussion about the non-renewals, which is the main reason for the faculty’s request. Frustrated by the inaction of SSU’s leaders, the CLASS caucus held a vote the week of March 25.

The question put forth to the CLASS caucus by Dominy:

“Shall the CLASS Senators Caucus begin its own independent investigation into the concerns arising from the news articles published in the Savannah Morning News the week of 19-23 February 2024, concerns about unclear policies and procedures followed during the reduction in force among tenured, tenure-track, and permanent faculty announced in August 2023, and to secure the report on the USG's investigation that began as a result from the College's no-confidence vote in Dean David Marshall?”

Dominy said the poll closed March 28. Five faculty voted “yes” on the caucus undertaking its own investigation. Four faculty voted that the caucus should “charge the Faculty Senate Executive Committee with such an investigation.” One faculty member abstained. No one voted “no.”

In his follow up message to faculty on March 29, Dominy noted that “only one vote separates whether the caucus itself should be running [the investigation] or that it should be referred to the Senate Exec [sic] Committee.” He suggested that the vote could be interpreted as an endorsement that “encourages the senate executive committee to take up its own investigation while we begin one as a caucus.”

Dominy has stated that the CLASS caucus has yet to decide on whether to officially request that the senate executive committee also investigate, which is his preference. “I think it would have more force or more weight and just doesn't look like a group of disgruntled senators from one college.”

The SSU faculty senate was scheduled to meet April 2, and the president and provost were on the agenda to speak.

In the meantime, Dominy said his next step is to ask the CLASS caucus what items and materials should be sought through an official open records request.

SSU provost calls non-renewals ‘personnel matters’

Miller did respond via email to Dominy’s initial meeting request. On March 4, Miller wrote that he and Alexander were open to a meeting, but that they would not discuss the non-renewals as they “are personnel related matters.” He then asked Dominy to submit “other related matters you would like to discuss.”

On March 11, after conferring with the CLASS caucus, Dominy shared the following agenda items with Alexander and Miller:

• Concerns arising from the news articles published by the Savannah Morning News the week of 19-23 February 2024

• Concerns arising from unclear policies and procedures for reduction in force among faculty

• Holding administrators accountable, specifically regarding statements in the Open Letter to CLASS Faculty from the interim provost about conclusions from the USG’s investigation related to our vote of no confidence in Dean David Marshall

Miller then responded to the CLASS agenda items and meeting request via a March 29 email. He stated that he and the president would not “discuss any matter relating to the reduction in force,” as well as “any related issue(s) published in the media.” Items one and two of CLASS’s requested agenda were off the table despite Dominy stating that the faculty does not wish to discuss individual faculty member’s personnel situations. Dominy said he expressed to Miller that “we're not talking about individual personnel. We're talking about procedures that clearly weren’t followed and we want to know why.”

Miller conceded that the faculty’s concerns about the non-renewal process are valid, but he stood firm against addressing situations that occurred before his time as provost. “It’s pure speculation on my part, and I don't operate that way,” he said, adding that they would need to seek answers from the previous president and provost, which leaves the faculty in proverbial limbo because both the former president Kimberly Ballard-Washington and former provost Yolanda Page had already resigned and left SSU by late July 2023, when the non-renewals occurred. Page’s absence is most notable in that the non-renewal form did not contain a required signature from a provost or designee acting as provost, yet the form still made its way to USG officials on Aug. 2, 2023. That is the same day that faculty were notified of their non-renewals, which is another violation of protocols stated on the form.

When SMN asked Miller what resources or services faculty might receive from him in their quest for answers about the non-renewal process, he said that CLASS faculty would have to make an inquiry with USG. He affirmed they would have to do so without the assistance of his office.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah State faculty approve investigation into protocol violation