Former African-American Studies chair blasts department, dismissal

This fall the interim chair for the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Dr. Valerie Grim, became the third person to fill the position in three years.\nCollege of Arts and Sciences Dean Kumble R. Subbaswamy hired Dr. John Stanfield to chair the department in 2002. A week before the 2003 fall semester, Subbaswamy named Professor Michael McGerr interim chair. Grim took over responsibilities as interim chair Aug. 1.\nSubbaswamy said in an e-mail chairs are "rotating term appointments, usually for three or four years." \nStanfield is away from the school for the 2004-05 school year.\nHe said Subbaswamy replaced him "due to being pressured and supported by collusive Bryan Hall administrators and the AAADS faculty."\nDr. Audrey McCluskey, associate professor and director of the Black Film Center/Archive, co-chaired the committee that hired Stanfield. She said the reason a dean will replace a chairperson is not due to personality issues. \n"Every department can experience personality issues, but (a chair will be replaced) for an issue of substance, such as malfeasance or mismanagement," McCluskey said.\nStanfield said the manner in which he left the department was an injurious action.\n"Nationally prominent African-American scholars belong to many of the same networks, so when the word spread about my dismissal, it confirmed in the minds of many the perception that the AAADS department was the usual case of a marginal racialized unit not worth the time of any scholar of noteworthy status," Stanfield said. "It reaffirmed the unfortunate impression many in academia have about IU-Bloomington being indifferent about establishing a healthy environment for African-American scholars to be productive and respected, especially those in leadership positions."\nSubbaswamy said that in 1999, before his arrival, the AAADS department faculty requested a department chair from outside the University. It has not been decided whether a permanent chair for the AAADS department will be recruited externally, but Subbaswamy said the task would be difficult.\n"Hiring a department chair externally is not easy. The pool of candidates with excellent faculty credentials and demonstrated administrative and leadership experience and willing to move is small," Subbaswamy said.\nStanfield agreed that recruiting externally would be challenging.\n"In general it is difficult nation-wide to convince prominent scholars to accept chairs of African-American Studies programs and departments," he said. "On most campuses, they are political units with inconsistent and usually weak resource support from administrations, though with strong informal social ties between well entrenched faculty and key administrators. This makes department management virtually impossible."\nMcCluskey commented that every department has difficulty finding external replacements, and it is not a reflection of the department's success.\n"The best scenario of rotation of faculty is promoting within and recruiting faculty members from the outside," she said.\nStanfield commented that outside sources are important in the success of a department.\n"(External recruitments) are necessary for doing things such as attracting high-quality faculty, especially senior faculty, fundraising, and developing collaborations with chairs of distinguished departments in the college and elsewhere on campus," Stanfield said.\nMcCluskey said in the past, there has been a search and screen committee to select possible candidates for the chair position, but no committee was active at the moment. Progression in hiring a permanent candidate will not occur until at least next semester.\n-- Contact staff writer Ashley Lough at amlough@indiana.edu.