The Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication is taking steps toward resolving communication problems among junior and senior faculty members.

On May 3, John Eighmey and Joel Geske were asked to step down from their positions as Greenlee School chair and associate chair, respectively.

Provost Rollin Richmond relieved them of their duties in the midst of allegations of racism within the school. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was temporarily placed in charge of Greenlee’s administration, though Eighmey and Geske both remained on the faculty.

Thursday, President Gregory Geoffroy reinstated Eighmey and Geske to their administrative positions. Geoffroy, Eighmey and Geske could not be reached for comment.

“I think, in hindsight, the provost was upset about some things and decided to take action. He got everyone’s attention, which is one thing I think he wanted to do,” said Peter Rabideau, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “I am supportive of the president’s decision.”

Steve Coon, associate professor in the Greenlee School, is on a five-person committee that will review issues within the department.

“I’m glad the president acted. We have the leadership back and at the same time the president says the school needs to examine the issues of communication,” Coon said.

Rabideau said it was time to restore governance to the school.

“The Greenlee School is in a very difficult situation if it doesn’t have control,” Rabideau said. “Now [the committee] can take a more careful look at the issues.”

“This five-person committee still has the mandate of the dean to work on some of the issues within the school,” Coon said. “We are trying to identify a facilitator who can come in and talk with the faculty individually.”

The role of the facilitator would be to talk with the faculty, one person at a time, to get opinions about the issues. They would then submit a report to the committee and “help decide how to take that information and get everyone in the same room to start talking about issues,” Coon said.

Coon said tension between faculty is inevitable, and that people were upset with how the Greenlee School was being run.

“I think there has been some tension that has led to a negative environment for the younger faculty, some of whom are minorities,” Rabideau said.

Coon said the focus in too many of the reports has been racism allegations, and that isn’t an accurate reflection of the real problem.

Coon said. “The primary issue is a lack of communication.”

Coon said faculty members haven’t shared their ideas and opinions with others, allowing them to get worked up about issues. The lack of communication led to “a lot of misunderstanding.”

“In the absence of open communication, people are letting issues fester rather than talking about them,” he said. “As a result, a lot of people stayed in their office upset rather than talking to the other faculty member.”

Another issue is talk of a division between non-tenured and senior faculty, Coon said.

“There is the question of research-orientation faculty and the practitioner of applied areas of training. There is a natural tension between these two areas,” Rabideau said.

“Nationally, a lot of journalism schools have dealt with this issue; we maybe have not done as good of a job at this.”

“Once you start talking, you find out the professionally-oriented and research faculty have a lot in common,” Coon said.

Rabideau hopes the committee and restored governance will help alleviate tension.

“The bottom line is, I don’t think any of us were happy that we did not have governance within the school,” Coon said.