The current chairman of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication announced Wednesday that he is leaving Iowa State. The announcement comes after the remaining three junior professors made known their intentions of leaving as well.

John Eighmey, head of the school, will be replaced by incoming director Michael Bugeja, from Ohio University, effective July 1.

Eighmey has accepted the position of professor of journalism and mass communication and the Raymond O. Mithun Land Grant Chair in Advertising at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

“Michael and I will be working very closely to make a productive transition,” Eighmey said.

The University of Minnesota was conducting a national search and approached him for the position, said Eighmey, who joined the faculty of the Greenlee School in 1996.

“The University of Minnesota is one of the great research universities [for advertising],” he said.

In May, Eighmey and Joel Geske, associate chairman, were stripped of their leadership duties within the school amid allegations of racism by former Provost Rollin Richmond. The two were reinstated by President Gregory Geoffroy two weeks later.

In separate reports of the Greenlee School by the Center for Creative Justice and the Faculty Senate in October, it was found that the Greenlee School had difficulty dealing with inter-office communication and conflicts.

Junior professors Scott Chadwick, Tracey Owens Patton and Cindy Christen announced that they would be leaving Iowa State last month. The school also lost three other junior faculty members last year: Osei Appiah, Linus Abraham and Spiro Kiousis.

“The climate within the Greenlee School has continued to deteriorate over the past year, particularly for junior faculty members,” Cindy Christen, assistant professor of public relations, told the Daily in an e-mail.

Chadwick was denied tenure and could stay at the Greenlee School for a year while seeking a position elsewhere.

Owens Patton has signed a letter of intent at the University of Wyoming, and Christen will join the faculty at Colorado State University, she said.

“Neither administrators nor faculty have been willing to acknowledge that problems still exist within the school, accept responsibility for their part in causing the problems or set aside their personal agendas in order to resolve them,” said Christen, who is leaving the Greenlee School after three years. “Until this situation is resolved, it will be difficult for any qualified junior faculty member who is skilled at research to survive and thrive within the school.”

Eighmey views the leaving of the three assistant professors as a hidden positive.

“The academic marketplace for individuals who are good researchers and good teachers is really quite competitive, and we have wonderful people here,” he said. “We shouldn’t be surprised that they’re sought after, and other universities might present opportunities that attract them.”

Eighmey said turnover in faculty can bring new ideas and opportunities with it.

“It’s important to recognize that people come and go in organizations,” he said. “People come here and do well and they receive offers that take their careers ahead; their career paths often take them other places. We have to respect that. It’s the bottom line.”

Christen disagreed.

“Administrators are trying to spin our departure as a sign of how good the school is doing!” Christen wrote in the e-mail. “Denial on the part of administrators has encouraged the destructive behavior of senior faculty members.”

Bugeja said he plans to lead discussions, but also listen, and to “get factual information if there are continual problems.”

Cheryl Oldenburg, academic adviser for the Greenlee School, said students may suffer from the faculty turnover.

“This has the potential to negatively impact students,” she said.

While the loss of faculty may not affect students’ ability to get into classes, it is unknown who will teach those classes in the fall, she said.

“No classes have been canceled, but we may see some shift in times the classes are offered,” Oldenburg said. “Lecturers who are experts in the field may be hired, and we would automatically switch everybody to that class, which could cause shuffling of schedules.”

Students who have Chadwick, Owens Patton or Christen as an academic adviser are concerned about who their new adviser will be, and there is a general feeling of the unknown, Oldenburg said.

“[When parents get divorced], they say ‘it’s not because we don’t love you,'” she said. “In the same sense we care about you as students, and we’re still trying to make sure students are taken care of.”

Owens Patton could not be reached for comment. Chadwick declined to comment.