THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501250461
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
James Madison University's faculty members, bitter over President Ronald E. Carrier's plan to close the physics department without consulting them, voted 305 to 197 Tuesday to pass a motion of no confidence in Carrier.
``I really find it difficult to believe that Dr. Carrier can effectively lead a university where more than 60 percent of the faculty don't have confidence in his ability to lead,'' said Dorn W. Peterson, a physics professor who is speaker of the Faculty Senate.
Peterson said he hoped the vote would persuade the university's Board of Visitors to reverse Carrier's decision, but administrators said they would not budge.
In a statement issued Tuesday night, Carrier said: ``At this point in my career, I could easily have avoided the controversy that JMU is now facing, but I would not have been doing my job. . . . I don't see the faculty action as a vote against what I have done at the university, but as a vote that represents a longing for a time past when the external challenges to higher education were nonexistent.''
Bill Rice, a music professor who supports Carrier, said, ``I think it (the vote) will have very little effect on how the university is operated. It will have the effect of giving the perception to the public that the majority of faculty are not in favor of going along with the changes that they're demanding.''
At some campuses, faculty votes of no confidence are enough to bring down presidents. But Carrier, who has led the Harrisonburg school for 24 years, has strong backing from state officials and leaders of the university board.
In a statement released last week, five board members told professors: ``These are the types of actions that are demanded by state government and the general public. . . . We want to make it quite clear that the JMU Board of Visitors fully endorses the actions taken by the JMU administration.''
The turmoil at James Madison over the physics decision illustrates both the idiosyncrasies of university governance and the obstacles to ``restructuring'' colleges.
At corporations, employees often get little say - and little notice - before changes in operation. But at universities, faculty members expect to participate in decisions, especially those affecting academics. So for many JMU professors, Carrier's failure to consult them was more irritating than his decision itself.
``The upset is over the lack of input,'' Peterson said. ``The faculty really believes that we are the right people to decide this issue, that we are the ones to stand up for academic excellence.
``Imagine me, if I were president, trying to make some decision on a psychology course? You have this broad range of expertise at a university. The reason you distribute out (that responsibility) to the faculty is that they're the ones who know about these things.''
Bethany S. Oberst, vice president of academic affairs, said physics professors had refused her request last year to review its programs, so administrators proceeded without them. But Peterson termed that ``revisionist history,'' saying that academic departments had been asked only to volunteer to examine their programs.
Oberst said that, with growing public scrutiny of colleges and concern over costs, it was important to expedite such decisions: ``In decades past, the slow evolution of curriculum might have been acceptable. Now we are being asked by the public to be able to respond more quickly.''
Administrators say the physics department, with 10 full-time faculty members and five graduates a year, is a drain on university resources. Oberst said the university spends $5,838 per physics student, compared with a national average of $3,729. Some professors will be laid off; others will be retained to teach some physics courses or to work in interdisciplinary programs.
But Peterson said JMU actually produces more physics graduates than most Virginia universities, including Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth. James L. Cox Jr., the physics chairman at ODU, said his department has 20 professors and graduates about five seniors a year. But unlike JMU, Old Dominion has a graduate program in physics and expects to award seven doctorates this year.
Even some of Carrier's critics praise him for transforming James Madison from an obscure teachers' school to a nationally known university that has retained a focus on teaching, not research, and a commitment to providing an array of services and activities to students.
Yet Caroline T. Marshall, a history professor, says the physics decision would be a big step backward. ``If you start abolishing higher learning, you've condemned the school to vocational status. Physics is the queen of sciences; it lies at the heart of all academic sciences.''
Students are split on the issue. Hundreds have signed a petition seeking to retain the physics department. But sophomore Brian Larson of Virginia Beach said, ``I think it might be a mistake, but I am behind the restructuring because education is facing such hard times in Virginia, and cuts need to be made and money needs to be saved.'' MEMO: Campus correspondent Sharon LaRowe contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JMU President Dr. Carrier is under fire for not seeking faculty
input on his decision to close the physics department.
by CNB