Power struggle at UMass department leads to bullying accusations
A leadership dispute at the chemical engineering department of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has led to allegations of bullying and required two different investigations to solve, The Boston Globe reports.
The fight began when colleagues said four professors tried to undermine department head T.J. Mountziaris. “We are your worst nightmare,’’ one faculty member told Mountziaris, according to an email from another professor.
Those four professors were then criticized for the behavior in their annual reviews, and university officials issued a report saying they tried to use a “secret petition’’ to oust Mountziaris.
To get to the bottom of the dispute, UMass hired two different investigators. One spent 16 months researching and speaking to faculty and was paid $17,000 for a report to the school chancellor. Another, by former UMass dean Janet Rifkin, spent 32 days tamping down the unrest and was paid $51,000, plus $10,000 in reimbursements, the Globe reports.
You can read the rest of the story at The Boston Globe.
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