Contradicting the public version of events presented by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, several sources told The Herald that two senior University officials were forced out of their posts as executive associate deans of the College.
Bergeron announced in an e-mail Saturday that she will restructure her office, responding in part to the departure of the two deans, who will leave their posts at the end of the academic year. But Bergeron's letter doesn't accurately reflect the circumstances of the deans' departures, those sources say.
According to those sources, Executive Associate Dean of the College Perry Ashley was fired from his post in late 2006 as part of the restructuring. The sources requested anonymity to avoid harming their relationships with the two deans and the University, and they all had either direct conversations with the two deans or indirect knowledge of the situation.
Two of those sources said Executive Associate Dean of the College Jonathan Waage was also forced out of his position in University Hall.
Bergeron's e-mail to students did not detail the cause of the departures. But she wrote that the turnover "required a rethinking of the structure of duties in my office; and so in October we invited two consultants to campus to offer their professional perspective." Bergeron also sent a similar e-mail to the faculty.
When asked in an interview Monday whether Ashley is leaving the Office of the Dean of the College because he was forced out or fired, Bergeron told The Herald, "Dean Ashley was not fired."
She said Waage, a professor of biology, is leaving the deans of the College's office because of a scheduled sabbatical before returning to full-time teaching and research.
Both Ashley and Waage declined to comment for this article.
The plans for reorganizing the office were recommended by two outside consultants, Princeton Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel and Stanford Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education John Bravman. None of their specific recommendations are public, and it is unclear whether their work is connected to Ashley and Waage's departures.
The dean of the College's office is currently searching to fill three new positions - a deputy dean of the College, a dean for diversity programs and an associate dean for curriculum. Based on job listings in the Chronicle for Higher Education, the University is looking externally to fill at least two of those positions.
Waage has been a member of the faculty for 34 years and an adviser to the dean of the College for five. He sits on the Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards planning committee and has served on the College Curriculum Council and various faculty committees.
Ashley, who has been at Brown for 29 years, has served as the primary pre-law adviser for undergraduates and the coordinator of the Resumed Undergraduate Education and Brown-Tougaloo exchange programs. He is leaving "to pursue other opportunities at Brown next year and beyond," Bergeron wrote in her e-mail.
What those opportunities might be is not yet clear, and a student who has spoken about Ashley's departure with professors said if Ashley, who is 59 years old, is not given a post suitable for someone with his long term of service and reputation in the University community, the faculty may protest.
Ashley and Waage are the latest in a series of deans to leave the University. Others deans who have left recently include Assistant Dean of the College Sheilah Coleman and associate deans of the College Armando Bengochea and Joyce Foster MA'92 PhD'97, both of whom left before Bergeron became dean. The turnover calls into question whether the dean of the College's office has the institutional memory and experience to undertake the reorganization Bergeron has said she wants.
"In any institution, the history of that institution is very important," said Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences Sheila Blumstein, a former dean of the College and interim provost and president. "Any new administration has to balance a couple of things. What is the institution? What is its culture? How have things been done before?"
"At the same time, the person might be interested in making changes. Because it was done in the past, it doesn't mean it couldn't be done differently," Blumstein said. "I think its essential to weigh those two together. How one enhances programs can build off the strengths of the past. Trying to make change without respecting or understanding that past can lend itself to either reinventing the wheel or causing disruptions that aren't necessary or using your resources in ways that aren't the best possible way. So it's a balance."
Bergeron, who has been at Brown three years and dean of the College for eight months, said re-examining structure is part of taking over a new position. "It's a natural thing when there's a change of leadership to look at things, to see what is being done well and what could be done better," she said. "In this case it was also required because, even before I arrived, there had been some departures."
"The question is, are you going to fill those positions with the same version of what's left behind?" she said.
Bergeron also pointed out that Executive Associate Dean of the College Robert Shaw and Associate Dean of the College David Targan, who will both remain in her office, have been at the University for 20 years and 18 years, respectively.
"We don't operate in a vacuum, so we can look to others within University Hall," Bergeron said. "We're going to miss Jonathan and Perry, and there's no question about the incredible dedication they brought. But even without their memory, there are others in the office and in University Hall - including many support staff - who have the long view."
Bergeron's long view involves seeing that each dean in her office is focused on a set of related tasks. "Individual deans do many different things, so one of the changes involved reshaping the individual portfolios so that each dean is responsible for one main program," she said.
For example, Associate Dean of the College Carolyn Denard is responsible for the UTRA program but also oversees independent study projects and transfer advising, among other things. The reorganization will have her focusing specifically on undergraduate research next year, Bergeron said.
The restructuring will also give the dean of the College's office a more active role in advising in the concentrations, Bergeron added.
"Traditionally, we've focused a lot on the first two years, and then when students declare their concentration, our work with them becomes very much more about academic standing and those kinds of issues," she said. "But we haven't really been thinking about how we can reach into departments and help them where they need it."
Bergeron said her office may help expand departmental undergraduate groups and train concentration advisers, as well as make sure a dean is assigned specifically to junior- and senior-year activities.
The more centralized structure will also affect post-baccalaureate advising, which will likely have one office devoted to pre-medical, pre-law and fellowship advising, she said. "We're ... thinking creatively about expanding the ways that we do this sort of advising. ... A lot of creative thinking going on, I'll say."
Despite the centralization of some programs in the dean of the College's office, Brown's "centers" - the Third World Center, the Swearer Center for Public Service and the Career Development Center - will remain in place as a "cohort" within the structure.
Bergeron said the changes are a result of not only the consultants' recommendations but also input from faculty and students. "When you're new in the job, the first three months, all you hear is what needs to be fixed, and so you listen," she said. "I would say I had meetings with the chairs of different departments at different times in the fall, and I have had individual conversations with different people."
Bergeron said though the particulars are still being worked out, the new structure will allow for a clearer focus on advising, the needs of international students and undergraduate research.
"Change is always hard, but we have a real advantage because these changes aren't happening so fast. We started the process in October, and these changes will go into effect in July," Bergeron said. "We're still thinking about fine-tuning this structure going forward, and there's still a lot of conversation going on. So, it's an incredible opportunity to think about how we're doing this work together."
