Adenrele Awotona, the embattled Dean of the College of Public and Community service, announced his resignation last Tuesday April 8 to take the position of director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters. At the time of the resignation, Awotona was under duress from the tenured faculty of the college who two weeks prior had written a letter to the dean asking for his resignation.

This is no surprise to many as Dean Awotona has had conflicts with the faculty from the moment he assumed the position of Dean of the college following an extensive search in 2005. Most recently, the faculty council has twice submitted votes of no confidence in the Dean and have lodged numerous complains and documented many examples of how they feel the Dean was not fulfilling his duties. The school has recently seen a drop in enrollment, which many attribute to the Dean’s leadership, and there has also been talk of a consumer fraud lawsuit filed by a group of students against the college.

At this point the Mass Media is also looking into the relationship between Dean Awotona’s resignation and the resignation of Provost Paul Fonteyn a few weeks ago. It is publicly known that Fonteyn was one of the Awotona’s major supporters at the university and the degree to which the removal of his support played a factor in Awotona’s decision is unknown.