Armed with majority support and a series of recommended improvements, Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, is determined to put the past seven months behind him and use a public relations nightmare to correct longstanding problems within the college.

“These are changes that probably should have been made a long time ago, but academia is so slow to change. We used a crisis to help make changes that will allow us to be an even better college — and we were pretty exceptional to begin with,” Salwasser said.

Fixing structural flaws

The changes he’ll implement stem from 25 recommendations made by the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, a 13-member group he created in February to examine what structural problems precipitated the maelstrom consuming the college.

Controversy had surrounded the college since January, when some professors tried to delay publication of a salvage-logging study led by graduate student Daniel Donato. The study was published in the journal Science.

Some say the professors were trying to defend academic rigor and protect Donato and his co-authors from entering a flawed study into the scientific record. Others viewed it as bullying, censorship and a blow to academic freedom.

In early June, faculty, staff and students in the College of Forestry were invited to participate in a vote of confidence on Salwasser’s ability to lead the college forward, as well as on the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility’s recommendations and Salwasser’s plan to implement these changes.

Of the 330 votes tallied, 66 percent expressed confidence in the dean, while 24 percent delivered a vote of no confidence and 10 percent abstained.

There was a similar split regarding changes suggested by the committee and the dean’s plan to address those suggestions: 63 percent supported the changes and the plan, 17 percent opposed them, and 20 percent abstained.

Has support of his bosses

OSU leaders have stood by the embattled dean.

At a June Faculty Senate meeting, Provost Sabah Randhawa said he and OSU President Ed Ray backed Salwasser.

“The dean has acknowledged that he made mistakes in managing internal issues but quickly took ownership of the problems that soon manifested,” Randhawa said. “I believe he has taken every action to ensure that the college moves forward from this point. I expect that, given time, there will be longer-range plans that address challenges within the college and that create a nurturing environment for its faculty and students.

“President Ray and I remain supportive of Dean Salwasser and will look forward to positive changes within the college through the leadership.”

Adjustments begin

Some improvements are already under way.

Since February, Salwasser has made himself more accessible, talking with students, faculty and staff to help heal any rifts.

“My door is always open. I have scheduled office hours, and I regularly wander around the halls,” said Salwasser.

He has stepped up the pace of previously annual all-college meetings to a quarterly schedule, hoping to improve communication among students, faculty and staff.

In the spring, graduate forestry students formed the Graduate Student Council. Undergrads also have clubs they can join. Salwasser now meets with these groups regularly.

In addition to making himself more available to the college, expanding the Forestry Executive Committee, the college’s decision-making body, was one of the easier recommendations to implement, Salwasser said.

He’s currently accepting nominations for two new members, which will take the group to 12. Nominees must be full professors, since professors still working toward tenure may feel uncomfortable dissenting with committee decisions, Salwasser said.

He plans to announce the appointees Monday.

Currently his executive assistant is the only woman on the committee, and Salwasser wants to add more diversity to the group — diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity and discipline.

A history of tension

The college consists of four departments: forest engineering, forest resources, forest science, and wood science and engineering.

Traditionally, there’s been tension in the college between researchers focused on forest management and those concerned more with environmental preservation. Salwasser said this divide can be seen in natural resources colleges across the nation.

The Science controversy raised the tension.

“It brought it to the surface and shoved it in our faces and forced us to do something about it. To do something about it isn’t to do away with it, but to take advantage of it. So instead of being a problem, (differences of opinion) become an asset,” he said.

The Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility also recommended that a faculty code of conduct be created.

The college has a student code of conduct, but the faculty rely on a general university handbook.

Salwasser said getting the faculty to agree on behavior standards and consequences for violations will be the most difficult change he makes.

Steve Strauss, a forest science professor, will lead a group of faculty charged with establishing a code of conduct. They’ll begin meeting this fall.

Another formidable prospect is reorganizing the structure of the college. Salwasser and the Forestry Executive Committee will look at whether some departments should be changed or combined with units in other colleges. If these changes do occur, they will happen in 2007, when the college revises its 2002 strategic plan.

Advisory council

In the meantime, Salwasser has formed a College of Forestry Advisory Council, which will provide input to him and the Forestry Executive Committee. It will include faculty, staff and students, and will periodically evaluate the progress Salwasser makes in implementing his action plan.

Although some say the college receives too much financial support from the timber industry, which could create bias or the perception of bias, Salwasser thinks these concerns are unfounded.

In fiscal year 2005, 11 percent of the college’s $26.1 million overall budget came from a harvest tax. Nearly all of this money goes to salary support and does not have any influence on what research faculty and support staff conduct, Salwasser noted.

Salwasser said the state’s continued disinvestment in higher education leaves him scrambling for other revenue sources. He expects this will consume the majority of his time next year.

Although he’s turned a negative experience into a chance for growth, Salwasser still wishes the Donato flap hadn’t happened.

“It was too painful to be glad,” he said. “It was too personally gut-wrenching for so many people in the college.”

Salwasser said he never considered resigning because running away from problems he helped create would have be “very cowardly.”

The vote of confidence has helped him realize the college is receptive to making changes with him at the helm.

There were enough positive votes “to tell me we’ve got very strong support for making the changes we’re going to make,” Salwasser said. “And that makes the leadership job easier, knowing people want to go where you’re going to take them.”

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.