Students in the Department of International Relations (IR) must adjust to two new faces and the loss of a familiar one, as the popular major begins the school year without former Assistant Director John Jenke and with a new director and assistant director.
Jenke, who was fired abruptly late in the spring semester, confirmed that he has filed a grievance with the University. Still searching for a new job, Jenke was unable to comment on his dismissal because of his grievance claim.
"I am very sorry that I am not at Tufts helping students," Jenke said. "Tufts is a fantastic university, and it is very painful to be cut off from it."
His removal left many students without an advisor and resulted in a popular outcry of IR students that has not entirely died down. "I think all of the seniors are just really shocked and stressed," said senior Catherine Caicedo, who led an e-mail writing campaign with seniors Adrienne Buckman and Daniel Mandell to demand information from the administration. "No one knows what's going on."
The former director, Professor Christiane Zehl-Romero of the German department, is currently on sabbatical. Zehl-Romero, who reportedly had a personal conflict with Jenke, has been replaced by Malik Mufti of the Department of Political Science. Mufti has been a member of the Tufts faculty since 1992.
Zehl-Romero said that the department would be well cared for after her departure. "I worked all summer together with Katie [Schaefer] and Elizabeth [Gottlieb], the continuing program coordinator and staff assistant, to leave the IR program in excellent shape and in good hands," she said.
The new assistant director is Professor Kirk Okano-Lange, who comes to Tufts from the University of Hawaii at Honolulu.
According to Zehl-Romero, Okano-Lange was hired this summer by a committee "on which faculty members from each of the [IR] major's contributing departments were represented." She said that she was sure the new assistant director would be well-liked.
A recent IR department e-mail to students majoring in IR extolled his expertise in "academic administration and program management."
But feelings remain raw. In a letter to the Daily last week, Donald Klein, professor emeritus of the Department of Political Science, wrote, "In my four decades of academic life at Tufts (where I was a political science professor for 23 years), Columbia, and Harvard, I know of no more outrageously unjust action."
Last spring, Klein also told the Daily that he blamed the decision to remove Jenke on a personal conflict between Jenke and Zehl-Romero, a charge Zehl-Romero denied.
University faculty and administrators have been unable to comment on Jenke's firing. "All I can say is that he has been an extremely valuable and dedicated member of the Tufts community, much liked and admired by students and faculty alike," Mufti said.
"He was just the person that you would usually go to for anything you needed," Caicedo said. "He would really give you the time it took to help."
In her e-mail, Caicedo wrote, "[Jenke] went above and beyond his written job description to truly become a mentor for all students. I implore the University to conduct an open investigation of the events leading up to his dismissal. In my opinion, Tufts should not be the type of place that simply slams the door on anyone who has devoted so much to our community."
"If you needed something, a lot of other professors would say, 'Just go to John Jenke,' because he just knew everything students needed," Buckman said.
According to Buckman and Caicedo, none of the students who e-mailed President Larry Bacow and Provost Jamshed Bharucha received a response.
"People were barely informed of what was going on," Caicedo said. "Most [IR] majors had to find out from other students."
Admirers of Jenke seem open but wary about Okano-Lange's hiring. Last semester Zehl-Romero said that a "student-oriented, highly qualified" assistant director would be hired to replace Jenke.
"Based on his resume and also on my experience with him these past weeks, I am certain he is indeed a 'student-oriented, highly qualified person' excellently suited for this job," Mufti said.
"We already had that," Caicedo said, referring to Jenke. "You can't just replace that."
