Greene leaves Bascom with strong record

Linda Greene, who for five years has led a variety of major campuswide initiatives as an associate vice chancellor, will return full time to the Law School faculty in the fall.

Greene, Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law, says she is able to leave the rotating administrative position with no regrets because so much has been accomplished since she was hired by then-Provost John Wiley in July 1999. She notes her oversight of the cluster hiring initiative, which has gained nationwide attention. The program advances emerging fields of knowledge that fall across several academic disciplines by hiring clusters of faculty to work in multiple departments, schools or colleges.

“The culture here was fertile for that kind of enterprise,” she adds. “This could only work in a place where the campus is accustomed to interdisciplinary cooperation.”

Greene is busy answering questions about the faculty pay gender equity exercise, which in 2002 resulted in pay adjustments for 42 faculty members, about 8 percent of the university’s female faculty population.

“The process gave legitimacy to the concerns people had about salary equity,” she says.

Her leadership on pay equity, and other issues affecting women and minorities on campus has drawn praise from colleagues, including Molly Carnes, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Women’s Health Research.

“As one of the few senior women faculty in the Medical School, I was well aware of the challenges of being a woman leader, and it did not take me long to realize that Professor Greene is truly a transformational leader and gifted strategist,” Carnes says, noting Greene’s work to increase hiring of dual-career couples and to create campuswide workshops to increase the recognition of sexual harassment.

Greene says she is grateful the Law School has accommodated her hectic schedule as a campus administrator, a favor that she hopes to return.

“I will continue to share this rich experience with my dean and my colleagues,” she says. “I learned a lot about the ways that colleges, departments and faculty can mesh their priorities with campus priorities. Also, I can advise my colleagues on avenues to meaningful involvement in campuswide initiatives.”

Greene says she is excited about a chance to refocus on the Law School. This spring, she developed a new course called “Constitutional Equality,” which explores current Supreme Court approaches to the equality of various groups. “There is so much going on in these areas. I didn’t want to wait until next year to begin development of this course,” she says.

Provost Peter Spear says Greene will be missed in Bascom Hall. At the same time, he says Law School faculty, staff and students will benefit from Greene’s return to full-time faculty work.

“Linda has made many enormously important contributions to this campus, and I will be sorry to see her go,” Spear says. “But associate vice chancellors in the provost’s office are faculty members doing administrative work for a period of time. Even when you have great AVCs like Linda, it’s important to maintain the rotation because these faculty members provide leadership and a campus-level perspective when they return full time to their home schools and colleges.”

When Greene was hired as AVC, she was given the title AVC for academic affairs with particular oversight of faculty and gender equity issues. The title was changed to AVC for faculty and staff programs following a 2002 re-organization of the provost’s office that Spear led.

With the title change came some changes in duties for the position, some of which won’t fully go into effect until Greene’s successor begins work. For instance, Bernice Durand, AVC for diversity and climate, has already taken up a number of Greene’s campus climate duties, such as overseeing the faculty and staff ombuds program and the Sexual Harassment Information Project.

Greene’s successor will continue to oversee sabbaticals and the cluster and strategic hiring initiatives, chair the Human Resources Working Group, and coordinate faculty workshops, orientation programs and other human resource initiatives.

Like other AVCs, Greene’s replacement will be able to initiate programs. In addition, the fluid boundaries between the duties of all the AVCs enable them to collaborate. Thus the official responsibilities of the new AVC could be aligned with that person’s strengths and background.

A nine-member search-and-screen committee chaired by Joy Dohr, associate dean and professor in the School of Human Ecology, is reviewing applications from members of the campus community.

Greene says her successor must continue to strengthen campus programs to mentor and develop department chairs, faculty and academic staff. This spring and summer, she is working with deans from the schools and colleges to develop an orientation for new and continuing chairs. Greene is developing tools to more closely track faculty retention and an exit interview to find out why faculty leave the university.

“All of these efforts require collaboration with other offices as well as departments and the schools and colleges,” Greene says. “In the current environment, the retention of faculty and staff must be a priority. In order to continue to increase our excellence, we must find ways to develop, reward and retain all employees.”