The ISU Faculty Senate put together a five-member fact-finding task force to look into allegations of racist comments and behavior within the Greenlee School, as well as actions taken by Provost Rollin Richmond.

The task force was formed after Richmond removed Greenlee Chair John Eighmey and Assistant Chair Joel Geske from their positions in the midst of racism allegations within the school.

“Our goal is to find out what happened,” said Jack Girton, chair of the task force. “We’re going to go through the events in the school in the past year or so that lead to the provost taking action.”

The task force will review the provost’s actions and receive input from all of the faculty within the school.

“All of the faculty should have been contacted. We’ve arranged meetings with the chair, the dean, the associate dean and the provost,” Girton said. “We are also going to meet with President Geoffroy.”

Part of this task force’s charge is to find out if the proper course of action was taken by Richmond.

“There is a great deal of confusion surrounding the issues – we’re trying to find out what the allegations were and what the administrative actions were,” said ISU Faculty Senate President Max Wortman.

“If we discover there are problems, the report will go to Max Wortman and Gregory Geoffroy,” Girton said. “Our job is to simply find out what happened and document it, and make a recommendation. As far as what should be done about it, someone else will look at that.”

“We are mostly interested in whether the rules and procedures were followed correctly,” Wortman said. “This task force has a very limited focus, primarily dealing with rules and procedures.”

The task force plans to submit a report Nov. 15, but the timeline may be extended by an executive board vote.

“Eighmey and Geske also could have filed a grievance with the Faculty Senate if they wished to,” Wortman said. “They are considered under the Faculty Senate as faculty members.”

The task force differs from the five-person committee set up by President Geoffroy. That committee is scheduled to submit a report on their findings Oct. 1.

“They deal with everything in the school,” Wortman said. “We’re just interested in whether the procedures were followed for the faculty.”