Dear Editor:

Your editorial of Oct. 20, 2005, raised important issues with regard to recent… Dear Editor:

Your editorial of Oct. 20, 2005, raised important issues with regard to recent events in the Department of Communication, and I am writing to make clear my position as Dean of Arts and Sciences with regard to some of the points that you made. I care deeply that all members of our community of scholars, whether undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty or staff, be treated with the dignity and respect that each of them is entitled to expect.

I am personally and professionally engaged in addressing any issues that are brought to my attention that are inconsistent with these values, and I will not tolerate, and have not tolerated, any such behaviors in Arts and Sciences. I deeply regret that two tenured women, whose scholarship, teaching and service I value, chose to accept positions elsewhere and leave the Department of Communication.

To the extent that these departures have affected graduate students, my Associate Deans and I are working closely with these students, their dissertation directors and the Department to neutralize any negative impact of the faculty losses on the progress of students through their degree programs. I am working with the Department to help shape its future through recruitment of new colleagues who will enable the Department to contribute at the highest level of scholarship within the discipline and help the Department meet its goals for its undergraduate and graduate programs within a climate that values diversity and inclusiveness. An important step in this process took place in August, when I charged a distinguished Committee, with members from three different Arts and Sciences departments and chaired by a colleague from outside the Communication Department, to search for a new Chair from outside the University. No other faculty recruitments will be made until we have recruited this Chair, and we look forward to a time when the diversity of the faculty within the Department more fully reflects the diversity of the discipline. I would like to reassure students, and the wider University community, that all matters brought to my attention involving alleged inappropriate behaviors or patterns of behavior within the Department of Communication have been thoroughly investigated.

This process included a comprehensive investigation or review of issues that emerged or re-emerged in the wake of the external review of the Department. All subsequent allegations have also undergone investigative review.

I took remedial actions in any instances in which behaviors were found to be inappropriate and the individuals involved were still at the University. Some of these remedial actions were public; many others were not. If new information regarding recent events comes to my attention, I will respond by opening or reopening an investigation and taking any appropriate actions. Treating each other with respect within our academic community is not just a polite necessity, and not just a policy requirement, but is a core value within a University of Pittsburgh liberal arts education.

I am committed to doing everything I can, and ensuring that the Arts and Sciences faculty and staff do everything that they can, to translate that value into our classrooms and our interactions with our students and with all other members of the University community.

Sincerely,

N. John Cooper

Dean