In a rare act of academic defiance, more than 60 faculty members at the University of Toronto’s education department are calling for the firing of their dean.

At a March 25 faculty town hall meeting, an “overwhelming” majority of more than 60 faculty members at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) supported a formal resolution that called on the university to remove Julia O’Sullivan from her position amid what they call indiscriminate and unexplained layoffs of support staff.

The “Faculty Motion Expressing Concern over the OISE Reorganization Planning Process,” obtained by the Star, says the unwillingness of O’Sullivan to meet with faculty over the layoffs of “highly skilled personnel” and the “implications for faculty and student work” has left a crisis of confidence in the dean.

The resolution asks the university provost to replace O’Sullivan with interim dean Glen Jones, and that he “actively collaborate with faculty and staff and others affected to review the rationale and the decisions made in relation to OISE’s research and teaching mandate.”

It further asks that a “complete financial analysis of OISE” be conducted.

A request for an interview with O’Sullivan was declined.

In a written statement, a U of T spokesperson said: “Professor O’Sullivan will complete her term as dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto on June 30 of this year, and is not seeking a second term. The University has appointed Professor Glen Jones as interim dean beginning July 1.”

The faculty resolution asks for her removal “immediately.”

“I’ve never seen anything close to this before,” one faculty member who has taught at OISE for more than a decade, told the Star on the condition of anonymity. “This is out of keeping with what is done. But we’re facing a situation that was horrific and couldn’t do anything about it and couldn’t get the dean to meet with us.”

Faculty invited O’Sullivan to attend the town hall to discuss the layoffs, said the faculty member who declined to be named for fear of repercussions. O’Sullivan declined to attend, she says.

“Normally, the dean goes to such a thing,” she said. “Some of the people who have been let go have been loyal, hard-working members of our staff for over 28 years. It’s quite shocking. The morale of staff is at an all-time low.”

Two days after the faculty town hall, 53 faculty with tenure or permanent status added their name to an email sent to Cheryl Regehr, vice-President and Provost at the University of Toronto. It included a copy of the resolution and indicated it was “approved overwhelmingly.”

Nine other faculty members without tenure indicated support for the motion without including their names.

Regehr declined a request for comment.

Layoffs of support staff, which includes administrative positions such as program registration, financial aid and admissions, have been happening over the past several months.

The union representing the staff — United Steelworkers local 1998 — has launched an online petition seeking 1,000 names supporting O’Sullivan’s removal as dean.

“Dean Julia O’Sullivan and her administration have begun a series of events that could ultimately lead to OISE’s collapse,” it reads. “It’s time to stand to take a stand before it’s too late.”

About 25 of OISE’s 127 staff positions will be eliminated by June, said Paul Tsang, president of the local. Faculty positions are unaffected.

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“There’s a lot of frustration in terms of what decisions are made and how they’re made,” he said in an interview. “People understand decisions needs to be made. But it’s a rude awakening that one dean has the power to open and close programs and affect so many staff jobs.”

Typically, academic faculty are involved in making decisions around program changes and staffing levels, he said. Faculty department heads typically communicate the reasons for those changes to staff.

In this case, he says, those decisions are coming directly from O’Sullivan without knowledge of the faculty at all, he said.

“It seems the game has changed and faculty is just catching on to what is going on,” he said.