Rachel Keith: From your reporting, why is UNCW Associate Professor Dr. Dana Stachowiak losing their position as the Director of the Gender Studies and Research Center?
Brenna Flanagan: Yes, so it's happening because of a restructuring of the interdisciplinary studies program into more of a cohesive organizational unit within the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts. Right now, the Gender Studies and Research Center operates as an independent unit within the college, but Dana, as the director, reports to the dean, Stephanie Caulder. Under the reorganization, the Gender Studies and Research Center would fall under the purview of a new position, a director of Interdisciplinary Studies, who would also oversee the college's minor programs, certificate programs, and the Interdisciplinary Studies majors at both the bachelor's and master's levels. With this change, instead of putting a new director on payroll and also paying for a director of the research center, Dean Caulder chose to eliminate Dana's position.
RK: Basically, the Center for Gender Studies is going to be, like you said, under the Interdisciplinary Studies Center, and why is this an issue?
BF: So it's not inherently an issue; in fact, many of the sources I talked to said the IDS restructuring made sense, and the Gender Studies and Research Center functions in an interdisciplinary way, so a variety of academic topics are explored through a gendered view. However, Dana and the others fear is that the capacity of the research center and its strategic plan that was passed last year would be limited because it no longer has that dedicated director, so the Gender Studies Research Center now falls under the desk of the Interdisciplinary Studies Director, who has many other programs and budget lines to juggle.
RK: And then, from speaking with Dr. Stachowiak, they were left out of the loop, from what was happening, was my understanding, and it sounds like other faculty that taught gender studies were as well.
BF: Yeah, that's correct. Dana said the dean had made up her mind on the restructuring before she ever really came to anyone about it, and so Dana was let in on the plan last fall, but wasn't told that their position would be eliminated until October, the other faculty within the college weren't told until February, and this was after a job posting for the Interdisciplinary Studies Director was already posted, and then they had a leadership meeting to discuss what was already underway.
RK: You had other professors and the Dean of the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts, Dr. Stephanie Caulder, they did not want to go on record. They did not want to talk to you. Why do you think that was?
BF: Yeah, so I can't speak to the dean's reasoning per se. I have spoken with her before when she first started in the role, but when I reached out to her for the story, both requests were denied by the university's communications team, so I never actually spoke even about this interview with Dean Caulder. As for the people I spoke to on background, they didn't want their names shared for fear of losing their jobs. Speaking out against a college dean's actions is a pretty big deal and could jeopardize a faculty member's job, promotions, tenure, and so on. So they didn't want to come out in criticism of that.
RK: And it took you a while to report this story out.
BF: Yeah, it took several months. I've been working on it, really, since the job posting back in February, and I think, really, because of the sensitivity of the issue, and again, people being scared to talk, it took some time to get comfortable with them and be in a place where they were willing to share information with me, Dana included. Like, we've had many conversations over the last few months about what they would like to say about this, and so getting comfortable and building that rapport with Dana was also a big part of why this took so long.
RK: And what was the biggest takeaway from your conversation with Dr. Stachowiak?
BF: Yes, so I think my biggest takeaway is that the university continues to erode resources for people of color and the LGBTQ+ community with little transparency to the outward community, the taxpayers that are supporting the university, but also to the people that are directly affected by decisions like the one I just reported, so faculty members are often left out of the loop, like we've talked about, and even when they are let in on the loop, they feel as if their concerns are not being heard or taken into account at all.
RK: And what is Dr. Stachowiak's future at the university?
BF: Yeah, so despite feeling very defeated and disrespected throughout this process, Dana is committed to staying on as a faculty member, so continuing to teach courses for students in the interdisciplinary studies realm.
Click here for Brenna Flanagan's article
