Health and Social Sciences Building 113 Wilder Street, Suite 200 Lowell, MA 01854-3058 tel.: 978-934-4525 fax: 978-934-2015

SOLOMONT SCHOOL OF NURSING Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences

Office of the Dean, Solomont School of Nursing and Vice Dean of the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences

June 16, 2020

Dear Chancellor Moloney and Provost Hartman,

As I am sure you are aware, Dean Shortie McKinney fired me yesterday. I am writing to express my concern for

the future of the SSON. The oft raised voices of our faculty have gone unheard and with nothing left to lose, I

feel a responsibility to try once more. This spring, the faculty met with Provost Hartman to review their

concerns. Dr. Barbara Mawn, a tenured full professor, ready to retire so without fear of retribution, laid out

the history of the struggles of the SSON to become a school and have a dean. To my knowledge, the faculty

received no further response following that meeting. As I understand it, this issue is also on the agenda this

summer for union contract negotiations. Two brave teaching faculty have stepped up to represent the SSON

because we have so few tenured faculty. It is important to note that many faculty and staff view the decision

to fire me as retribution for their meetings with the Provost and the union.

I am curious why you’ve chosen time after time to listen to one person, Dean McKinney, and not to the 29

people in the SSON nor SSON alumni, advisory board members or community partners. It appears to me that

no one has explored the concerns of the SSON with an open mind and with the recognition that these men

and women are highly intelligent and have legitimate concerns. I’ve been told that Dean McKinney has a long

history of micromanaging and controlling the SSON and that she fought the creation of the school and

establishment of the dean and vice dean roles. In any case, the titles of college vice dean and SSON dean are

meaningless, in reality. The SSON dean is merely a figure head. The title of vice dean is laughable. Dean

McKinney told me on several occasions that the title was created so she could delegate authority to the SSON

dean to make personnel, hiring, budget and other decisions within the School of Nursing. However, there is no

authority. The SSON dean is neither fish nor fowl, having not the direct ear of the Provost (as do department

Chairs) nor the Chancellor and without membership in the Dean’s Council.

In making the decision to fire me, I wonder if you have given any thought to the SSON accomplishments of the

past 10 months. Here are a few:

Created the 11 policies and Systematic Evaluation Plan required by the Board of Registered Nursing.

Without these, we would be vulnerable to violations of Board regulations.

Updated the CCNE (our accreditation) Master Evaluation Plan.

Established new connections with donors and alumni via an electronic newsletter and a nursing

alumni webinar.

Established an SSON emergency fund to assist students.

Partnered with an adjunct faculty interested in recruiting students of diverse backgrounds to the

SSON, using the Bring Diversity to Nursing endowment fund to support this new role.

Created new and strengthened relationships with clinical and community partners.

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Strengthened relationships with the UMASS nursing deans and the Massachusetts Association of

College (MACN) Deans of which I am to be president-elect. I will now need to withdraw from that

position.

Facilitated the resurrection of the psychiatric mental health NP program options and post masters

certificate at a time when this role is desperately needed.

Facilitated the work of our program directors to acquire approval of three new PhD program options

and a new BS to DNP option.

Restructured our organizational structure, including new bylaws, updated our mission and vision and

revamped certain roles to increase efficiency; revised our strategic plan for 2020-2023.

Recruited and hired three exceptional faculty. Quoting Dean McKinney, the list of potential candidates

was “unprecedented.” This was not coincidental or accidental. While the high quality of the SSON was

the primary driver of this, our efforts to bring the SSON out from under the umbrella of the College via

changes in our web site, for example, also made a difference. In addition, several of these exceptional

candidates followed me from my previous position.

Hired our first Donna Manning Endowed Chair for Nursing. Of note, this person may now choose not

to come because I will not be dean. She made her concerns clear when she accepted the position.

The SSON has exceptional NCLEX and certification board pass rates and its master’s program is listed

as #79 in the country per US News and World Report. While I cannot take any credit for this, it is

unusual to fire a dean when things are going so well. Along with the efforts of our faculty and staff, I

have increased the visibility of the SSON. In addition to my election as president elect of the MACN

board, I sit on the nursing council for Lawrence General Hospital. I am an associate editor of a major

journal and sat on the CCNE Nomination Committee, the New England Organization of Nurse Leaders

Nomination Committee and the American Academy of Nursing Fellow Selection Committee this year.

Sadly, I will need to remove myself from these roles.

I have only been in the SSON a short time. I do not take credit for its accomplishments. That is all due to

our faculty, staff and Interim Dean Mellilo. However, during my short tenure, the SSON has not faltered

and has, in fact, been strengthened. As you know, this spring was particularly challenging but we came

through it very smoothly due to our exceptional faculty and staff. It is important to remember that nurses,

particularly those with graduate degrees, are in high demand in clinical and academic settings. They can

earn much more money in clinical settings and won’t have the concern that Dean McKinney will veto the

recommendations of their nursing colleagues if they decide to pursue promotion and tenure.

If you value the SSON, I suggest you make a commitment to listen to and act on faculty and staff concerns,

fundamentally alter the structure whereby the College Dean has veto power over everything and

acknowledge that you risk losing a school that has the potential to be among the top ten in the country.

Sincerely yours,

Leslie Neal-Boylan (cc: UMASS President Marty Meehan, Senate representative Heidi Fantasia, SSON faculty

and staff)

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Health and Social Sciences Building 113 Wilder Street, Suite 200 Lowell, MA 01854-3058 tel.: 978-934-4525 fax: 978-934-2015

SOLOMONT SCHOOL OF NURSING Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences

Office of the Dean, Solomont School of Nursing and Vice Dean of the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences

June 19, 2020

Dear Dr. Nash,

As you know, I was fired from my position as dean in the Solomont School of Nursing on June 15, 2020. I

requested an exit interview with you but have not been contacted. Today is my last day. I feel a responsibility to

share my concerns before I exit. I will not repeat what I wrote in my letter to Chancellor Moloney and Provost

Hartman. I have attached that letter to this one. It is a poor reflection of the university and its administration that

no one has offered me an opportunity to share my concerns or show any interest in them. It is also contrary to

the image the university has attempted to cultivate of equity and fairness.

It seems clear that College Dean McKinney used my email regarding Black Lives Matter (BLM) as rationale to

fire me. This is attributable to one phrase in my initial email that otherwise was very clearly a message to NOT

discriminate against anyone. I followed this with a formal apology that the university crafted. It is clear that

Dean McKinney used this as an excuse because my performance as dean has otherwise been without fault and

has, in fact, strengthened the SSON.

You might be interested to know that I have NEVER (in a 40 year career) been accused of racism. I was raised

to treat everyone the same, was a military spouse for 25 years interacting with people from a variety of racial

and ethnic backgrounds and my daughter is Korean.

While I made a mistake for which I apologized, it was clearly not egregious enough to prevent Dean McKinney

from offering me a job as a faculty member in the SSON. Clearly, I am not a danger to students or the

university if I can be a faculty member. To those students who were upset regarding my email, wouldn’t it have

been better to use that as a teachable opportunity to explain that leaders also make mistakes and use this as an

example of why lifelong learning is so important?

It is important to point out that no one ever gave me an opportunity to share my views of how the college and

school were interacting nor explain myself regarding the BLM email. My meeting with you, Shortie and Lauren

Turner was clearly not intended to give me an opportunity to defend my actions. I was condemned without trial.

In addition, my statement that Shortie was retaliating against me has not interested anyone sufficiently to want

to discuss the matter. My email to you and the provost shortly before I was fired, expressing my concerns for

the SSON was ignored.

I find it interesting that Dean McKinney should choose the BLM email (for which I apologized) to indict me.

Dr. Comfort Enah whom we brought to campus and ultimately hired as the inaugural Manning Endowed Chair

is African American. She was very upset after meeting with Dean McKinney. Among other things. Dr. Enah

told me that Dean McKinney asked: “Comfort, what kind of name is that?” Dr. Enah, an experienced tenured

Associate Professor shared with me her concerns about Dean McKinney. I assured her that she would probably

not have much contact with Dean McKinney, that it was my job to advocate for the SSON. Other faculty who

met with Dr. Enah told me that she expressed concerns about working with Dean McKinney. We made offers of

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hire to five candidates. I was permitted to make these offers with far less information than was required for Dr.

Enah. Dean McKinney required extensive detail not required of the other candidates. In fact, I was able to offer

positions to three of the five candidates with practically no additional information beyond what they provided in

their applications and interviews. Dr. Enah was required to submit several iterations regarding her background.

The most recent candidate who will join the SSON in fall 2021 and was only recently offered employment,

required far less than did Dr. Enah. It is interesting to note that Dr. Enah was the only African American

candidate. Unlike Dean McKinney’s treatment of me, I chose to give her the benefit of the doubt at the time.

The SSON dean job posting, the position description for my position, an email provided to Chair Lisa Abdallah

from previous Provost Vayda and the MSP all indicate that the SSON dean has authority for personnel, hiring,

budget and other decisions in consultation with the college dean. In addition, consultants hired a few years ago

to evaluate the SSON clearly documented that this model of the school within the college was hampering

progress and recommended it be changed. During my interviews, Dean McKinney assured me this meant

conferring with her but that I would make the final decisions. It soon became clear however, that she interpreted

consultation as a discussion after which she made the final decisions. I’ve since learned there is a long history

of resistance to any autonomy in the SSON.

I was not permitted to sit on the Dean’s Council and was discouraged from contacting the provost directly. At

UML, the lack of respect for my role was glaring. The CCNE stipulates that the nursing dean be equivalent in

authority to other deans on campus. Consequently, the University has been out of compliance. I am curious how

this will be portrayed when the CCNE visits in spring 2021.

My role was not respected or valued by university or college administration. This speaks to the lack of value for

the SSON. Without doubt, my firing was based solely on Dean McKinney’s dislike for questioning of her

authority. This is poor leadership. While the model of the SON within a college is rare, it can work when the

college dean values the school and its leadership and acts as a confidante rather than an autocrat.

I’ve chosen not to pursue legal action because I know this would fuel the conservative opposition to the BLM

movement and that would be anathema to me. I also do not want to draw any negative attention to the SSON. I

have discouraged them from speaking to the press despite their anger at the situation.

Sincerely yours,

Leslie Neal-Boylan

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