Administrators said yesterday they cannot guarantee that the education department will offer classes until 1997, exposing a rift between the department and the Dean of Faculty Office and confusing students who were told they could earn a certificate in education before they graduate.
George Wolford, the assistant dean of faculty for the social sciences, called an announcement from the education department to the Class of 1997 "a premature communication."
"There wasn't sufficient consultation between their department and our office," Wolford said.
Wolford said students will be updated as soon as the College knows more about the department's future. "Before we say anything we want to make sure it's a very considered response," he said. "You want it to be a very considered response before you guarantee or not guarantee."
Education department chairman Robert Binswanger said he sent the message because he was concerned about rumors among students that the department would be terminated.
A review committee of College professors examined the education department last Winter term. The committee's report, which has not yet been released, recommends that the department either disband or refocus its program so that it is consistent with a liberal arts education, according to sources who have seen the report.
Richard Sheldon, who heads the Russian department and chaired the review committee, said the message sent on BlitzMail was intended to reassure students that they could take classes in education. "There were a lot of rumors about the department closing and ... students ... thought the department had no future. That was not an intended result of our report. The message was designed to head off that situation," he said.
The suggestion that the department should be abolished is an unusual step to take.
"I don't know another department that's been told it should be abolished," Binswanger said.
The department has been crippled over the past several years by in-fighting among professors and by criticism from other members of the faculty for offering what could be considered a pre-professional teaching program at a school committed to the liberal arts.
Last spring Dean of Faculty James Wright said he would release the report after he received a response from the department. The department has been working on a response for nearly six months.
Binswanger said the department's response to the Dean of Faculty "is coming ... but so is the millennium." He also said since the report was issued in the spring, "there has been no time for the department to spend reviewing the report."
Wolford said he was under the impression that report was nearly complete and Education Professor Andrew Garrod said, "With approximately two weeks I expect we will have given our response."
The long delay in the department's response frustrated many review committee members, who wrote a letter to Wright in July asking him to set a final deadline for the response letter, Sheldon said.
"We asked him to set a deadline for a reply because we were concerned about all the rumors that were circulating in the absence of the report," Sheldon said.
During the Summer term, Faith Dunne, who chaired the education department, stepped aside. Binswanger, a visiting professor, was named head of the department. Administrators said it is highly unusual for a visiting professor to head a department.
Sheldon said Binswanger "was kind of chairing [the department] last year. We had the understanding that it was a sort of co-chair arrangement at that time with them sharing responsibilities. He works well with everybody in the department."
Sheldon, the review committee chair, said he's not concerned with the long response time. "It's hard for them to work together and I guess I didn't really expect there would be an immediate response," he said. "I'm satisfied to know that they're working together. That's the important part."
The top faculty deans could decide to close the department with the faculty's approval, Binswanger said. "The deans can do anything ... . There's no such thing as a written process if a department is threatened with abolishment."
But Binswanger defended the department's role on campus. Terminating the department "wouldn't satisfy me and wouldn't satisfy a lot of students and professors who really believe there is a role for the education department on campus," he said.
News Editor Kristen King and Senior Editor David Herszenhorn contributed to this article.
