UCLA School of Nursing faculty voted to declare no confidence in their current dean, Lin Zhan, in March 2023 because of concerns about her failure to consult with them.

Of the 42 faculty who participated, 62% approved the vote of no confidence.

Lecturers at the School of Nursing seemed to be even more dissatisfied. In an advisory ballot conducted among 24 lecturers and managed by their union, the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, 22 voted in favor of the vote of no confidence.

The Daily Bruin spoke with seven lecturers and UCLA Academic Senate faculty at the School of Nursing, some of whom shared dissatisfaction with the School of Nursing’s working environment and leadership and said Zhan’s unilateral decision-making violated the department’s tradition of shared governance.

Faculty concerns centered on Zhan’s failure to include them in important decision-making processes, while lecturers said they were concerned by the lack of administrative support in the department and felt undervalued.

Zhan announced changes to faculty workload policies a month before the vote of no confidence but did not consult them before making the changes, according to faculty meeting minutes and internal emails reviewed by The Bruin.

Faculty members were concerned that the new guidelines would increase the teaching load for assistant professors, limiting their ability to conduct the research necessary for tenure, according to minutes of faculty meetings. 

Lauren Clark, who was the School of Nursing’s associate dean of academic affairs at the time of the policy change, said Zhan did not offer town halls, Q&As or other opportunities for feedback from the faculty.

“Understanding the role of the Academic Senate faculty in discussing and dialoguing about faculty workload – that was not done,” said Clark, a professor at the School of Nursing. “That became a problem.”

Paul Macey, a professor at the School of Nursing, said faculty typically would have been included in this type of decision. Several faculty meetings were called to address growing discontent.

“I believe the faculty viewed their only response to be one of resistance to the leadership because it became impossible to register resistance to the document in any particularly effective way,” Clark said.

A spokesperson for the School of Nursing did not answer questions about the vote of no confidence and the complaints raised by faculty. Instead, they provided a statement detailing the school’s recent achievements.

“We respect the perspectives of all faculty and staff and remain committed to open dialogue and continuous improvement,” the statement said. “It is important to recognize that the measurable gains seen at the School of Nursing are focused on the long-term success of our students, faculty, and institution, as well as the need to operate within budgetary constraints.”

MarySue Heilemann, a professor in the School of Nursing and chair of the school’s Faculty Executive Committee, compiled a document with questions from faculty for the school’s leadership.

“There are growing concerns among faculty due to a loss of trust in the Dean and Associate Deans,” the document read.

Faculty questioned on the document how administrators will assure them that their feedback is considered in policy decisions.

Despite the majority of faculty voting no confidence in Zhan, she was not removed from her position. 

In early August 2023, more than four months after the vote, Zhan relieved the three associate deans at the time – Clark, Holli DeVon and Robert Lucero – of their positions.

Zhan explained to Clark that she reached this decision in consultation with Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt, Clark said.

“She (Zhan) said that EVCP Hunt had told her that she needed to let all three of us go and that that was the solution that they had been working on together for some months,” Clark said.

Clark said she thought it was a strange solution to dismiss the associate deans while retaining Zhan but added that the faculty seemed somewhat satisfied by the change. 

“It provided a ‘sacrificial lamb,’” Clark said, noting that these were words of other faculty and not her own. “Faculty governance had done its job and had enacted change. It wasn’t the right head on a platter, but there were heads on platters.”

Similar issues with Zhan’s leadership resurfaced in April when the administration announced teaching assignments for the 2025-2026 academic year without consulting some of the faculty.

Macey said although he was given the opportunity to ask for certain classes before the initial assignments were released, others were not.

Some faculty expressed concerns at the initial teaching assignments, noting that, in some cases, people were assigned to teach a class they did not have the qualifications for, Macey said.

In response to these complaints, the administration sent out an email taking responsibility for the lack of consultation and announced that the teaching assignments would be subject to change.

Zhan did not answer any questions about the teaching assignments or changes to the school’s leadership since the vote of no confidence.

Macey said he was struck by how this situation reminded him of March 2023, when there was a change around teaching without consultation.

“When you look back at what was the reason that they called for the vote of no confidence, the trigger, the catalyst was an arbitrary change in the teaching policy,” Macey said.

Lecturers, who collectively teach more than 70% of courses in the School of Nursing, have voiced concerns about not feeling supported in their work.

Kristen Johnson, a lecturer who worked at UCLA from 2021 to 2024, said administrators were unhelpful when she raised a concern about her students not receiving lunch breaks during 12-hour shifts at one of their clinical rotation locations.

Johnson said she decided to speak with administrators at the School of Nursing before reaching out to the director of the unit at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center where her students were working because she felt it was important to have the backing of the School of Nursing.

“I asked them for help, and they pretty much said, ‘Deal with it,’” Johnson said.

She said she ended up speaking with the unit director herself to resolve the issue. But the site was one of the school’s best and only locations for labor and delivery exposure, so she was nervous about damaging the School of Nursing’s relationship with the unit, she said. 

“It just felt so above my paygrade,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to go in there by myself.”

She said she faced a similar response in 2023 when she raised concerns about a Santa Monica clinical site she did not believe would be an ideal learning environment.

Johnson said she told her supervisors at the School of Nursing that the site was inadequate for a geriatric rotation because the patients were unable to communicate with the students. She also proposed an alternative site, but the administrators did nothing, she said.

“It really felt like they didn’t care about me at all,” Johnson said.

An anonymous lecturer who was granted anonymity because of fear of retaliation said the administration did not provide them with co-faculty this year, which means they do not have someone to cover for them in case of sickness or scheduling issues.

They said this was difficult because they worked back-to-back clinical shifts at the hospital and then taught later in the week.

“I’m physically and mentally exhausted from being in the hospital for 24 hours previously before coming to the theory class,” they said.

But they said the administration has not helped them navigate these added challenges.

“I don’t feel like I’m getting that support,” they said. “I feel like it’s falling on deaf ears, and I actually have emails and stuff where I have not gotten any responses from my leadership when I needed it.”

Johnson said she felt like “a second-class citizen” as a lecturer, and the anonymous lecturer said they felt lecturers were at the “bottom of the barrel.”

“I was not a priority at all,” Johnson said. “I was very disposable.”

Zhan declined to respond to any of the concerns raised by lecturers.

Darah Wilson, a continuing lecturer and volunteer union steward at the School of Nursing, said lecturers have filed a grievance alleging the School of Nursing violated lecturers’ workload policy because of extra work lecturers have had to do as part of the ongoing curriculum overhaul, which began in 2022. 

“We are undergoing a massive, one-in-a-decade, decade-and-a-half curriculum overhaul right now,” Wilson said. “The School of Nursing administration is refusing to acknowledge the significant amount of work involved in that.”

Lecturers have also raised concerns about the decision not to provide benefits over the summer for lecturers who were not assigned to teach, which started in 2023.

Another anonymous lecturer who was granted anonymity because of concerns about retaliation stated they were required to pay out of pocket for their own health insurance because they were unassigned over summer.

Lecturers recently won an arbitration case against the university that ensures that they will retain their benefits over the summer. The decision states that lecturers must be reimbursed for the previously withheld benefits.

“It was a poor decision made by the administration in the name of saving the money,” the lecturer said.

Johnson, who left the School of Nursing in 2024, said she consistently felt undervalued during her time as a lecturer.

“When I showed up for my first day of work, there was no one there to greet me or to show me how to do things,” she said. “When I left, I cleaned out my office by myself and never even got as much as a thank you or goodbye.”

With ongoing controversy around Zhan’s decision-making and dissatisfaction among the lecturers, Macey suggested a path forward for the school.

“When people can have that back-and-forth, express their views and discuss things they disagree with, you come to better decisions and you have a better climate,” Macey said.