Dive Brief:
- Dickinson State University President Steve Easton on Monday announced plans to step down after all seven of the North Dakota public institution’s full-time nursing faculty resigned in protest of new workload policies.
- The nursing faculty resigned last week, citing unrealistic teaching responsibilities and other issues, The Dickinson Press reported. In a lengthy public message, Easton said he and other administrators had been looking for replacements but were prevented from doing so by the state Board of Nursing.
- Easton said he chose to resign so the university could rehire the faculty who departed. North Dakota’s nursing board pushed back on Monday against Easton’s framing, saying in a public statement that it did not stop Dickinson State from hiring new faculty.
Dive Insight:
Easton was named president in March 2020 after four months in the role on an interim basis.
Tensions have recently grown between Easton and the faculty, who opposed the administration’s moves to downsize.
Last year, the university finalized plans to eliminate seven academic programs and eight faculty positions — cuts Easton said were needed to plug a budget shortfall.
Then, earlier this year, the university rolled out new workload policies meant to ensure classes had sizable enrollment, according to The Dickinson Press.
Easton explained in his message Monday that the new guidelines require instructors to teach an average of around 13 students per class.
“The Nursing faculty has made it clear to me, repeatedly, that they do not believe these standards, that apply to all other DSU faculty, should apply to them,” Easton said. “That is the rub.”
Easton added that he refused to carve out an exception for the nursing faculty. In turn, the faculty declined to sign contracts with the new workload standards, throwing the program into uncertainty for its 100-plus students.
Dickinson State did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the university’s plans to replace Easton or whether it will rehire the faculty who resigned.
According to his announcement, Easton informed the state’s nursing board in a July 10 email that the university had listed job postings for the positions and was working to hire both full-time and part-time nursing instructors.
Two days later, however, the nursing board told him the university wasn’t complying with the requirement to have a nurse administrator oversee the faculty recruitment process, according to Easton.
Given the weeks needed to find a nursing administrator, the board effectively “prohibited us from even contacting potential faculty members until a nurse administrator is hired,” he argued.
That leaves the university with no other option except to hire back the nursing faculty, Easton said.
“I am now stepping aside to allow the re-hiring of the former Nursing faculty,” Easton said. “While I will not sign my name to such contract offers, I certainly would understand, and will not criticize, the decision of others to do so, to protect our students’ education from the actions taken by the North Dakota Board of Nursing.
The nursing board refuted Easton’s statements, saying Monday that it “DID NOT force Stephen Easton’s resignation, nor did it disallow the hiring of a nurse administrator or faculty by DSU.”
Instead, the board said it issued a standard notice alerting Dickinson State of “multiple nursing program shortcomings” stemming from the mass faculty resignation, which it said its members would review during a July 25 meeting. The board also referenced June survey results of the university’s nursing program that it said detailed “significant discord between Mr. Easton, administration, and the nursing faculty.”
In the July 12 notice, the board encouraged the university to hire a nurse administrator before filling the faculty positions. It also asked the university to share its plans for doing so during its meeting later that month.
The North Dakota Board of Nursing "will continue to work with DSU to restore its nursing education program following Mr. Easton’s resignation and continue the education of the more than 111 students left in the lurch due to the conflict between administration and faculty which resulted in this crisis at the institution,” the panel said.
