Daily Egyptian
The School of Social Work was granted an extension for submitting the required self-study necessary for accreditation. It comes as no surprise that the school was unable to meet the required deadline given the Melrose Place atmosphere it has portrayed during the past several years. Insults and gossip circulated within the faculty, and three directors came and went in less than two years.
Although it is likely the school will be able to receive its accreditation or, at the very worst, be slapped on the wrist by the Council on Social Work Education and told to improve by a certain date, the missed deadline has much deeper implications.
School of Social Work employees have forgotten that they all play for the same team. If you keep beating yourselves with your own bats you will never win.
Consider the drama.
In the not-so-distant past, former director Martin Tracy and his wife, an associate clinical professor, were hit with two lawsuits in two years. In the first, an employee alleged the husband-and-wife pair forged her signature on a grant application. Prior to that lawsuit, a colleague sued the couple for comments made at a meeting.
Neither were ever found guilty, but the fact that Martin Tracy resigned from his post shortly after is proof that things were less than harmonious in the School of Social Work.
SIUC general counsel Peter Ruger was also named in a lawsuit when the same social work professor alleged defamation for a comment he made to the local newspaper about the forgery case. Ruger was quoted as saying, "I'm dismayed people in the academic community cannot sit down and talk to each other about grievances. For some reason they feel compelled to run off to the courthouse."
He was absolutely right. The court dismissed the case.
The grumbling, however, would not end with smack of the judge's gavel.
After Tracy resigned, John Pohlmann severed as interim director until Sharon Keigher was hired.
Less than a year after she began, Keigher quietly stepped down from her position after it became known that she held a tenured position at another university in addition to her job at SIUC.
The Daily Egyptian obtained an e-mail Keigher sent to other members of the school that read, "Please know that I intend to tell Dean Hillkirk that I will be resigning from my previous university immediately. Should he ask me to resign from SIUC, I will do so, with deep regrets."
Shortly after the story of her resignation appeared in the Daily Egyptian, the College of Education issued a press release stating that Mizanur Miah, a professor in the school of social work, was named the new director.
We do not blame the dean or social work employees for wanting to remain silent. Taking a lesson from history, they must have realized that it was wise not to get involved in a mud-slinging contest. Even now, Hillkirk will not comment on the situation except to say that he appreciates Miah's leadership.
This choice to be silent, however, leaves a lot of questions unanswered and makes us wonder what exactly it is they are doing over there.
The College of Education has always been the heart of SIUC since the University became recognized as a State Teachers College in 1928, and since then it has only grown. It is the second biggest college on campus and has a tradition of graduating qualified students. About a year ago, it expanded to its current title, the College of Education and Human Services, which is mother to the School of Social Work.
Given all the good that comes from the College of Education, we hope the school of Social work is able to get its act together under Miah's direction.
Missing the deadline for submitting the required paperwork for accreditation (which comes around every eight years) is like a kick when you're already down. It's not Miah's fault, of course, given that he has only been director for two months.
Miah said everyone thus far has been very cooperative, and he said he does not see the degree of discord that existed in the past. He seems optimistic and committed to improving the school.
It will take the continued cooperation of everyone if this is to be accomplished. Besides, it seems only natural that people with a degree in social work would want to eliminate problems rather than create them.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
