Edgewood College has reinstated the positions of all six Edgewood College professors who were initially terminated in May.
One anonymous professor and English and ethnic studies professor Huining Ouyang learned this week that the Board of Trustees decided to rescind their termination notices, while communications professor Bonnie Sierlecki had not yet directly heard the results of her appeal at the time of publication. Though Ouyang plans to return to the college, both she and Sierlecki cited opaque and confusing communication from administrators throughout the appeals process.
They were among six faculty whose positions were eliminated May 27 as a step to meet “changing student needs.” Though the three others have since left the college, the Board decided to rescind all six terminations “in order to allow for a review of the entire process” and work toward a more comprehensive growth strategy, according to an email from Board chairwoman Lucy Keane to the Academic Rank Committee on Thursday.
“The Board felt that the best opportunity for those groups to work together was to move the focus away from a decision made in the past and put our focus and attention in the future,” Keane said in the email. “We look forward to a time of healing and for our new President to use this new-found time and space in a constructive way.”