A decision about proposed changes that would affect 69 graduate students and four tenured faculty members has been put on hold.
Graduate Dean George Justice and Provost Brian Foster sent an email to Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute faculty members March 12 stating the institute would be restructured.
Proposed changes included placing the NSEI research center under the vice chancellor for research. The graduate programs would remain in the Graduate School as interdisciplinary master’s and doctoral degrees under the guidance of a new director.
Tenured faculty members Sudarshan Loyalka, Mark Prelas, Tushar Ghosh and Robert Tompson would be given two years to find new departmental homes.
This decision was based on input from MU faculty and deans and an external report from 2010, according to the email.
An external review committee conducted a report on the institute in April 2010. The committee’s report presented five possible options to develop NSEI, one of which was to relocate all programs in NSEI to existing academic units, according to the report.
After receiving the email from Justice and Foster, Loyalka said there had not been any prior discussion regarding this action with NSEI faculty, students, alumni or staff.
“The decision came very abruptly and was upsetting,” Loyalka said. “My biggest concern was that this decision had violated principles of faculty shared governance and the effect it would have on students, faculty, staff and alumni.”
A request was sent to Chancellor Brady Deaton from the MU chapter of the American Association of University Professors that asked for a hold on the proposed restructuring until issues relating to the shared governance had been resolved.
The proposed changes to NSEI conflict with the Collected Rules and Regulations in regard to appropriate recognition of governance issues on campus, sociology professor Wilson Watt said in the AAUP request.
The faculty has primary and direct authority in making decisions that directly affect educational programs, according to chapter 300, titled Faculty Bylaws.
NSEI faculty members are within their governance rights to request a review of this decision to ensure a violation of the bylaws has not occurred, Watt said in the email.
The NSEI faculty has met with the provost and MU administration three times since the announcement to disband the institute, Loyalka said.
NSEI’s website, which was taken offline almost immediately after the announcement, was back online Monday morning.
“There has been very good discussion and progress,” Loyalka said. “We (the institute) have been doing well and the focus should be on how to enhance nuclear science and engineering at MU in the future by using our strengths.”
The proposed split in the institute is on hold, Loyalka said.
But Loyalka said he thinks a decision will be made within the next few weeks.
“We are moving in a positive direction,” Loyalka said. “Both sides are listening to one another. Our goal is to have a decision that will be best for everyone involved.”
