The rise and fall of camelot: designing, implementing, and dismantling  (Page 14/16)

In the college meeting that followed, Dean2 announced that ELF would be dissolved and that its programs and faculty would be split between the three remaining departments. The final weeks of the spring semester were emotional, tumultuous, and divisive. Many members of our department, including myself, sought ways to forestall the reorganization, to no avail. My mentor and colleague, DH1, resigned in protest over what she felt was an unfair process, lacking in transparency and faculty input. Ultimately, three ELF members would cease their university affiliations as a result of budget cuts and the handling of the reorganization. Two others retired.

By the end of the spring, I had become angry, bitter, and distrustful. There was a point at which FMC2 and FME worked hard to bring the three of us together in mutual support. We discussed strategies for how to best maintain program integrity as we moved into the new department. This coming together gave me some small hope for the following year, but these were short-lived.

During the transition period that followed I met with our new department head, DH4, and was candid about my frustration with the course of events and with Dean 2. I shared with DH4 that I was focused on maintaining MSA program integrity. On May 3, DH4 oversaw an MSA personnel meeting designed to reconcile differences between FMC3 and the rest of us, especially me. Over the coming weeks, DH4 made clear his expectations that FMC3 would teach a core leadership course, despite concerns by myself and other MSA faculty that the issues that led to FMC3’s marginalization remained unchanged. Since then, FMC3 and I have worked to resolve our differences and have made some progress, yet our fundamentally different ideas about some of the program hallmarks remain.

On June 30, our department officially ceased to exist and the MSA became part of Human Services. In July, I was informed that our communal office space, a space with 5 desks, few partitions, and our version of a round table, “was to be reassigned ” and that we would need to move out in time to “retrofit” the room. The MSA faculty would be reassigned to new, individual, offices. For me, the space was a symbol of our shared program culture, so this was yet another traumatic event for me. I interpreted it as a signal from DH4 that collaboration was not a valued commodity. The final change occurred in August 2011 when FMC2, the only instructor of EDL 603, became the new doctoral program coordinator, resulting in her reduced role in the MSA.

As the fall semester approached, our program had changed departments, lost two faculty members, regained a member who I was not on positive terms with, and lost our shared office space. My expectations heading into the fall were low.

Year 4 (2011-present)

As this story is being written, we are nearing the end of the fall of year four. In the fifth week of the fall semester DH4 informed me that I would no longer be program coordinator, effectively immediately. FME was asked to take this role, and the two of us continue to discuss ways to keep the ideals of the program intact. I work closely with FMA, co-teaching and improving EDL 601. Our once shared office space and round table sits empty to this day.