The American Association of University Professors Purdue Chapter calls for the immediate resignation of Provost Patrick J. Wolfe and a vote of no confidence in the Provost in Purdue’s University Senate.
Since Provost Wolfe’s promotion to Provost in January 2023, Purdue University and its undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, and faculty have suffered from the effects of his unilateral decision-making.
Boilermakers across campus have lost confidence in Provost Wolfe’s leadership and have been unable to get Provost Wolfe to course-correct through internal channels. Our ethical and professional obligations to Purdue and to the state of Indiana require us to speak up in order to protect the community we hold dear.
The following details a pattern of short-sighted decision-making that has negatively impacted nearly all parts of Purdue:
- Unilateral decisions to block faculty hires and refusal to sign offer letters for candidates who had accepted a verbal offer after successful department-level searches, demonstrating an unwillingness or inability to carry out critical yet routine employment processes. The Provost’s unwillingness to sign official offer letters to sought-after candidates whose positions he had already authorized has diminished the institutional reputation of Purdue and harmed faculty recruitment efforts.
- Unilateral and non-transparent restructuring of the John Martinson Honors College, resulting in job losses for 15 of 17 faculty members without any concrete plan to preserve its excellence. This restructuring devalues the interdisciplinary expertise, mentorship, research and co-curricular experiences, and curriculum offered by faculty with one of the highest proportion of teaching awards on campus. The Provost did not sign realignment offers for 7 JMHC faculty despite months-long vetting processes with Dean and department-level support, and after reassurances were given to the University Senate. Incoming students have been recruited under incorrect presumptions about what resources will be available to them.
- Significant teaching shortages in several departments due to faculty turnover and hiring delays, which undermines departments’ ability to serve students and protect faculty research time.
- Insisting upon a non-transparent Movable Dream Hires program, while failing to respect departmental assessments of strategic priorities. This program has simultaneously served as an excuse for not hiring faculty in a broad range of areas.
- Failure to complete a search process for a new Dean of Education. While a committee of three deans and several other associate deans and senior faculty was formed to conduct a search, Provost Wolfe did not follow the committee’s recommendation after months of effort. This failure has left the College of Education without permanent leadership for over 3 years.
- Failure to initiate a search process for a new Dean of Libraries for over 8 months, keeping their faculty and staff in a state of limbo.
- Broad overreach during tenure & promotion processes, including unilaterally increasing the number of reference letters required while limiting acceptable writers to those at universities affiliated with the American Association of Universities. Such requirements are difficult or impossible to meet in many research areas and do not bolster Purdue’s academic reputation.
- Failure to follow appropriate procedure for tenure and promotion cases. Several candidates whose cases had successfully passed through all committee stages were pressured–without any reason explicitly cited–to remove their tenure cases from consideration the day before the Board of Trustees was scheduled to meet to review them. This interference in the standard tenure and promotion process undermined transparency, fairness, and shared governance on campus.
- Failure to explain changes in direction to colleges, such as when the College of Education was asked to develop a proposal for a STEM Teacher Certification Pathway and then after months of dedicated labor was prevented from submitting said proposal. This incident undermined morale in a College that plays a crucial role in preparing teachers to serve communities across the state.
- Expansion of HEA 1001 post-tenure review requirements to clinical faculty beyond the stated ambit of the law (which only lists “tenured faculty”), imposing a range of reporting requirements that create additional and unwarranted bureaucratic hurdles for precarious faculty.
- Repeated cuts to book-producing disciplines in the humanities and reduction of tenured faculty who have the research time to write books, while promoting the use of Generative AI to turn faculty lecture notes into books in order to boost Association of American Universities metrics. This undermines the credibility of Purdue’s commitment to excellence.
- Failure to appeal the U.S. Department of Education’s discontinuing of a $34.9 million education grant for the Indiana Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR Up), which included a scholarship program aimed at supporting low-income students’ participation in college or training after high school, even though Purdue was given seven business days to appeal. This grant, housed in Purdue’s College of Education, was the 6th largest federal grant in Purdue’s history.
- Firing staff involved in DEI and associated work across the campus, who had been explicitly told to continue “business as usual.” The Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging; the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research; and the Polytechnic Recruitment and Diversity Department were dismantled, which involved firing 60 student ambassadors and full-time staff members, some of whom had no DEI-related responsibilities. Provost Wolfe did not adequately justify these firings, which were made over the summer in an apparent attempt to evade notice. These actions, which have sent shockwaves across campus, are at odds with Purdue’s “people first” mantra.
- Fostering a climate of self-censorship. DEI staff firings, the JMHC restructuring, undue influence during tenure & promotion processes, off-record communications, and the Provost Office’s general failure to address state and federal-level laws impacting the rights of campus workers have compelled faculty to self-censor for fear of being fired for researching or teaching material within their areas of expertise. This undermines the mission of the University, academic freedom, and the educational rights of students, ultimately hampering Purdue’s ability to recruit and retain the best faculty and students.
- Discrimination against prospective graduate students based on nationality. Graduate heads were reportedly told, without explanation, that the Provost’s Office will not support the granting of admission letters to applicants from China and several other countries. The Purdue administration attempted to do this quietly through in-person meetings, private conversations, and pressure on graduate admissions committees following a March inquiry from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 establishes country of origin as a protected class.
- A lack of leadership on social and political issues that directly impact Purdue’s ability to meet its teaching, research, and service mission. Policies of institutional neutrality allow for action on such issues, and the Chicago Principles that Purdue holds dear explicitly state that the university “has a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.” The Provost Office’s silence is thus neither neutral nor legally mandated, but tacitly acquiesces to current attacks on higher education.
Provost Wolfe’s conduct has negatively impacted the careers of faculty and staff who are here to serve the student population, with devastating consequences for student learning and campus governance. His resignation is urgently needed in order to restore faith that the Purdue administration will treat its community with appropriate fairness and transparency and demonstrate a sense of duty to its alumni, faculty, staff, and students.