Rhode Island School of Design Provost Jessie Shefrin has decided not to implement a divisional restructuring plan that triggered the faculty's "no confidence" vote in President John Maeda and the provost last month, Shefrin wrote in an email to RISD faculty Friday.
The administration previously proposed to delay restructuring by a year, but Shefrin's email is the first mention of abandoning the plan altogether.
"I made this decision after listening to and consulting with many faculty and the deans," Shefrin wrote. "This is in recognition of the need to not only slow down the pace of change, but also to focus on the things that are the highest priorities."
But the email's tone frustrated several faculty members, who remain disaffected by the administration. "There's a sense of futility about this whole enterprise," said Mark Sherman, chair of the Faculty Steering Committee.
"The emphasis on her having made the decision is very interesting since we had to fight tooth and nail to get to that point," Sherman said. "They're really only doing what they should have been doing in the beginning.
