California Lutheran University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Leanne Neilson announced in a faculty assembly meeting on March 17, that the dean position for the College of Arts and Sciences will not be filled at this time following a months-long search. Neilson said she is considering different options on how to fulfill the duties of dean until the university is able to conduct another search to fill the position.

Neilson said the decision to not fill the position of dean came about due to a need to restructure the position entirely and cited the university’s $5.2 million financial deficit as one of the main factors that led to this decision.

Neilson proposed one option in which she would take on the duties of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, while delegating certain responsibilities to associate deans or other members the Cal Lutheran faculty. Neilson said she doesn’t yet know if other faculty members, such as associate deans, will be financially or otherwise compensated for taking on delegated tasks.

“Whenever we have a vacancy, we have to cover for the person. Probably, the associate deans will take on more responsibilities,” Neilson said. “We may need to take certain tasks that the dean does and delegate them to different people. So, we’re going to take the position, and I will have oversight, but be working with multiple people who will take on parts of the job.”

In addition to Neilson’s announcement, last week’s Faculty Assembly also voted on program cuts in both graduate and undergraduate programs. The proposed cuts were the product of an academic review. Faculty voted in favor of cutting one graduate program, and several undergraduate programs were either cut entirely or merged with other existing programs in an effort to consolidate resources.

Of Cal Lutheran’s six academic units, the College of Arts and Sciences is the largest, encompassing all undergraduate programs offered at the university. As of Spring 2024, Cal Lutheran had a total of 2,046 traditional undergraduate students enrolled at the university, according to the Spring 2024 Census Summary.

“I don’t think there will be an effect on the students,” Neilson said. “I think with the faculty, what we’re going to need to do is figure out how to cover the responsibilities of the dean during this time of the vacancy.”

Neilson also said the vacancy should not cause delays or holds to processes like selecting professors for promotion or tenure, but did say that the process itself will have to change to avoid a conflict of interest.

“There is a step where the dean submits a letter to the aAppointment Rank and Tenure Committee, and then the Appointment Rank and Tenure Committee makes a recommendation to me, with regards to the promotion or tenure,” Neilson said. “I think we have to figure out who’s going to be writing those letters because it doesn’t make sense for me to write a letter to them to then recommend back to me.”

Neilson made it clear that the decision to not fill the dean position was entirely her own, and weighed multiple factors prior to doing so, including the opinions of the external search consultant, WittKieffer. Neilson said the reworking of the dean position is still in development, but envisions a more “externally facing” job than what the position of dean has traditionally expected of applicants in the past. As a result, Neilson said she expects the position description to be different, garnering a different pool of applicants when that search eventually takes place.

“At some universities, deans are very much involved in helping to develop relationships outside the university and to help with generating revenue. That has never been an expectation in the past for the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and that’s one of the changes that we have been looking at,” Neilson said. “One of the things that we feel that would be helpful is if all of our deans are much more externally facing than they have been in the past.”

Neilson also said the university was in negotiations with a potential new dean for three weeks prior to this decision, however the candidate eventually turned the position down.

“We talked about the new responsibilities at the very outset when I made the offer,” Neilson said. “So that was made clear because I wanted that person to know what the expectations were going to be. We had conversations about it, but that wasn’t part of the negotiations.”

During the Faculty Assembly meeting on March 17, faculty expressed disappointment in Neilson’s decision and raised questions about how Neilson plans to handle the workload of both dean and provost if she decided to move forward with this proposed plan.

“I think what you saw today was a lack of trust and a creation of fear,” said Michaela Reaves, professor and chair of the History Department at Cal Lutheran.

Neilson said she anticipated the reaction garnered by the announcement, due to its unexpected nature, but said she hopes that further conversation will help people better understand why she made this decision.

“As a whole, our faculty is a data-driven decision-making body that will always seek to understand what factors, and their prioritization, were used to generate ideas or to reach a decision,” said Sheridan Wigginton, professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, in an email interview. “Although I was surprised that a more specific plan was not outlined about how to move forward, I hope that means faculty will have an opportunity to meaningfully collaborate in deciding our next steps.”

Reaves said she worries this decision will hinder recruiting efforts due to the instability it presents to potential new students.

“I don’t know if she didn’t understand what she was saying, that it was gonna be so upsetting, but it’s the fact that we’re [faculty] so not involved, we’re not included, and it really upsets me for the students,” Reaves said. “For someone who’s been here, like, 30 years, it’s really sad.”

The Echo reached out to several full-time faculty members in addition to Reaves and Wigginton, but they declined to speak to The Echo regarding the provost’s decision.

With Interim President John Nunes’ term approaching its 2-year mark, Neilson said the possibility of a simultaneous dean and presidential search is up to the Board of Regents’ timeline.

“I don’t know how aware they all are of this change, but yeah, I know some of them are,” said Neilson. 

While the dean search is currently paused, Neilson said she is looking forward to working with faculty to reshape the position itself and rebuild trust.

“I’m really proud of the faculty for all the work they’ve done in this past year,” Neilson said. “I know that the news was unexpected, and so there was a reaction. But my intention is to work closely with the faculty and the leadership of the college and in doing so, my goal will be to rebuild any trust that might have been lost.”