‘I want to trust, but I need to verify’
Two months after the forced removal of division directors, and as the dean faces accusations of nepotism and mismanagement, Health Sciences faculty and students feel left in the dark.
A culture of secrecy surrounds an ongoing confrontation in the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences, according to the few individuals who have been willing to speak or write publicly about the issue.
In a 12-page letter calling for a formal dispute resolution process, faculty and staff accused their dean, Jacob Warren, of engaging in nepotism to benefit his spouse and of costing the college more than $10 million in grant funding by altering grant applications before submission. The letter also paints a picture of a college where lack of communication is the norm and where employees allegedly face repercussions for voicing dissent or even just concerns. The letter was signed by several employees, including multiple division directors, and was leaked to the press in October shortly after it was written.
Also in October, five of the college’s seven division leaders took part in a vote of no confidence — those five unanimously indicating they did not believe Warren could effectively lead the college. Within a week of that vote, two of those division leaders were forced out of their positions.
These were simply the latest in a long line of “disturbing and unethical events” that have taken place in the college since Warren took the helm, according to recent public comment.
Since the removal of those directors and the faculty letter being leaked, very little discussion has taken place in the public view.
However, a prepared comment during this week’s UW Board of Trustees meeting — as well as earlier comments from affected students and an opinion column penned by a retired professor and published in WyoFile — show that faculty, by and large, do not feel safe speaking out about the problems in their college and have been kept in the dark about what is or isn’t being done about their concerns.
A ‘culture of fear and distrust’
The UW Trustees met Wednesday morning for a brief teleconference. Almost the entirety of the meeting — 90 minutes of the meeting’s 106 total — happened in executive session. But when trustees reentered the public portion of their meeting, they took a single public comment from Associate Professor Evan Johnson.
Johnson co-authored the dispute resolution letter outlining the allegations of nepotism and mismanagement in the College of Health Sciences. He described his own statement to the board Wednesday as making “one final attempt to raise my voice,” adding he had been inspired by the “incredibly brave WWAMI students” who had visited the board in November.
“We’ve been given examples over the past 18 months that our input is not considered, and that voicing an opinion that differs from the Dean’s could be perilous to our career,” he told the trustees. “The culture of fear and distrust is actively eroding our college and the wellbeing of our employees.”
Johnson outlined some of the problems Health Sciences faculty are having with their dean, while stressing the lack of meaningful communication across that divide.
“Dean Warren fails to act on the concerns of faculty, while telling us that he knows our needs and is listening to us,” Johnson said. “CHS directors met with the provost to no result. Similarly, when the directors levied a vote of no confidence in the dean, there was no action. When faculty intended to use their singular pathway to resolve a dispute, we were reprimanded for sharing our lived experiences and threatened with consequences — up to and including termination.”
Johnson said this air of secrecy extends to the university’s own response to faculty concerns. He said he has faith in the leadership of the university, but added this leadership should be more transparent.
“I’m also aware that the board has met with Dean Warren, and I’m speculating — but feel pretty confident saying — that steps to improve the working environment have been discussed,” Johnson said. “However, neither I, nor the 43 employees who supported the faculty dispute request, nor any member of the college to my knowledge, have been contacted by any administrative personnel to verify these steps are taking place.”
Without that communication, it’s difficult for faculty to trust their concerns are even being heard, he said.
“Despite the evidence, I want to trust,” Johnson said. “But I need to verify.”
Board Chairman John McKinley was the only trustee to respond, but did so briefly and without divulging any information about how the dispute resolution process was proceeding or what the position of the board might be.
“I think everybody takes those comments to heart and we are allowing the process to move forward,” he said.
‘Muffling dissent’ and the future of WIND
Donal O’Toole, a retired professor and former chair of the Faculty Senate, argued in a recent WyoFile column that this “pattern of secrecy” at UW could ultimately impact the health and wellbeing of Wyoming residents — especially those with disabilities — given the college’s tradition of community outreach and its central role in training the state’s future healers.
The Wyoming Institute of Disabilities (WIND) — one the college’s seven major divisions — has been particularly hard hit, O’Toole writes. He offers a brief history of the celebrated institute.
“The WIND program was established at UW in 1994 and has since grown in size and impact,” he writes. “Its mission is to help the disabled of Wyoming, including training and supporting people who work with the disabled.”
And O’Toole writes that mission was in good hands when the institute was helmed by Sandy Root-Elledge — a widely respected director who had been critical of Dean Warren and was forced out two months ago following her participation in the vote of no confidence.
“Since 2017, Root-Elledge and campus colleagues secured $32.7 million in external funding for disability teaching, research and service,” O’Toole writes. “With the $26 million in funding she helped generate beginning in 2004, Root-Elledge established the Wyoming Assistive Technology Resources program, the Wyoming Educational Materials program, the Wyoming Family to Family Health Information Center, the Wyoming Accessibility Center, Wyoming iCan Connect and Wyoming’s Project ECHO. By any measure, Root-Elledge was a successful, effective and popular administrator.”
O’Toole writes Dean Warren’s actions have already cost the institute dearly. In the last year alone, nearly one-third of WIND employees — seven of the institute’s 23 total — have resigned.
“Keeping the rationale for decisions under wraps, and thereby muffling dissent, has particular impacts when it affects Wyomingites with disabilities and their livelihood, and the education of Wyoming’s future health care providers,” he writes.
WIND is not the only division of Health Sciences feeling the heat. At the trustees’ November meeting, medical education students hailing from UW’s WWAMI program said the future and reputation of their typically prestigious program is now at stake.
Amid all of this, both students and faculty have felt left out in the cold, disconnected from whatever conversations might be occurring regarding the recent shake-ups.
When trustees or administrators do speak publicly or to faculty, it has often been to offer strong support for Dean Warren, to tell faculty their concerns are being taken seriously without offering details, or — in at least one instance — to remind employees they can be fired for sharing some kinds of information with the press.
“If confidential information is shared publicly, there could be disciplinary consequences, up to and including termination,” Provost Kevin Carman concludes in a brief email to College of Health employees.
Carman sent the email shortly after the Laramie Reporter reached out to UW for comment regarding the allegations against Dean Warren. The email was redacted and shared by WyoFile alongside O’Toole’s column.
“The impulse for UW’s upper administrators to circle the wagons and support one of their own is hardly unique, but it is unhealthy,” O’Toole writes in the conclusion to his column. “Such opacity and apparent cronyism breeds suspicion, erodes faith in the institution from the inside out, enforces deference, discourages the kind of collaboration and intellectual risk-taking that underpin successful research institutions, and destroys morale and esprit de corps. The university’s employees, Wyoming’s taxpayers and the citizens served by the College of Health Sciences’ programming all deserve better — they deserve to know just how this critical institution is run.”
The University of Wyoming is a public institution which mandates transparency, a condition that both the upper Administration and the Trustees accepted when they assumed their respective positions. In times of crisis, such as this, it is incumbent upon both to not only act, but they must also be SEEN to be acting. Failure on either account is not only inexcusable, but it is also tantamount to a severe dereliction of their duties that cannot be overlooked.
As most graduates of the of the College of Health Science (CHS) know, when someone presents in an emergency room hemorrhaging, delays and inefficiencies result in death - an irreversible condition. Here, one division within the CHS that has lost over a third of their workforce, an easily identifiable hemorrhage. Despite this fact, the Trustees and upper Administration have done nothing transparently to demonstrate to the students, staff, faculty, and public at large that they are fulfilling their duties to act and preserve a vital state institution that is under a colossal threat from the CHS Dean’s inept leadership and vindictive nature. If the Trustees and Upper Administration continue down this path, and refuse to take public action, there is no choice but for the whole University, the public, and government to declare No Confidence in them and have them removed!
With this kind of leadership, up & down the chain, no wonder the University is losing students. The directors inclination towards secrecy and the Provost inclination towards silencing is but an indication that the UW itself is ill.