Conflicts lie in management, not chair

Blutinger is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant
coordinator in the history

department. Megan Barnhart, Matthias Klein and Adam Barnhart
also contribute to this opinion.

By Jeffrey C. Blutinger

The last nine days have been some of the most dramatic in recent
memory for members of the UCLA history department. They began with
the resignation of the graduate student advisor on Jan. 31, and
were followed by a private Letter of Concern on Feb. 6, signed by
109 graduate students and listing complaints about department
management.

Although this was intended as a private letter to the chair and
senior university administration, someone leaked it to the Daily
Bruin. In the two days that followed, the department held a series
of meetings between graduate students, faculty and the
administration, culminating in a stormy faculty meeting on Friday
during which professor Brenda Stevenson, the chair of the history
department, unofficially resigned.

We are doubly shocked and saddened by the severity of the
current situation and the need to clarify some of the events with
this submission. First, because it will appear after learning of
professor Stevenson’s consideration to resign as chair of the
department, under whom the department grew in strength. Secondly,
because the graduate students who wrote and signed the Letter of
Concern have fervently hoped to express our views internally and
informally, so that we might reach a mutually acceptable resolution
out of the public spotlight.

We offer this editorial today not in opposition to Professor
Stevenson, but to make clear our support for her, as well as to
correct certain mischaracterizations that appeared in the original
article.

A casual reader of the Daily Bruin might have thought the
graduate students had taken issue with financial decisions made by
the department chair as a result of the need to make budget
cutbacks; this was not the case. The overwhelming majority of the
issues set forth in our Letter of Concern related to a series of
questionable actions taken over the last nine months by Doris
Dworschak, the department’s management service officer.

We addressed our letter to Professor Stevenson as chair of the
history department, not because she herself was responsible for
them.

Last Thursday, three graduate students and myself, along with a
union representative, met with Professor Stevenson at her
invitation to informally discuss issues raised in our letter. This
meeting was cordial and constructive, and Professor Stevenson not
only expressed a genuine interest in hearing our views, she also
took positive and affirmative steps to address the problems we
pointed out with the MSO’s actions.

For example, Professor Stevenson was surprised and upset to
learn that the MSO’s decision to charge teaching assistants
for necessary teaching supplies was in violation of the union
contract. She turned to the MSO and instructed her to rescind that
decision immediately and inform all teaching assistants the same
day ““ and it happened a few hours later.

Professor Stevenson then apologized for both the MSO’s
actions, as well as for the way the MSO made this decision without
any notice and without consulting graduate students.

Throughout the meeting, it was clear to the graduate students
present that Professor Stevenson was genuinely committed to
improving the atmosphere in the department and improving
communication between graduate students, faculty and the
administration. Much of the meeting was devoted to a friendly
exchange of ideas between Professor Stevenson and the graduate
students on ways to improve the department.

Overall, the meeting was productive and we left it convinced
that Professor Stevenson shared our concerns about department
management and wanted to work with us to help resolve them.

It is thus understandable that we were shocked and saddened on
Friday when we were told Professor Stevenson said she wanted to
step down as chair of the history department on Friday.

We do not know why she is considering resigning, but can only
guess it was the result of some deeper issues within the department
of which we were completely unaware. We are very hopeful, however,
that this situation can be worked out quickly and to
everyone’s best interests.

We know both the faculty and graduate students are genuinely
interested in solving these problems and in creating mechanisms to
prevent such issues from arising again.

We look forward to working with Dean Waugh and whomever he
appoints as the next chair of the department if Professor Stevenson
decides on leaving, to resolve these outstanding issues on a
private and amicable basis.

Our primary goal remains to restore the department’s
camaraderie and professional atmosphere we so cherished and dearly
miss.

And above all, we wish to assure the UCLA community that the
history department remains dedicated to the highest level of
scholarship and teaching.