Faculty leaders at Piedmont University are asking the school’s Board of Trustees to suspend and temporarily remove President Dr. James Mellichamp and his husband Dr. Daniel Smith from campus. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee made the request Thursday in the wake of another high-profile resignation. The panel asked the board to act so that an investigation may be conducted into allegations of misconduct leveled against the couple.
“Allowing these two individuals to remain on campus while an investigation of these accusations is conducted creates an untenable, hostile workplace environment for a considerable number of faculty and staff,” the committee states in a memo sent to trustees. The panel expresses its concern about possible retaliation against faculty members connected to the former professor who filed the complaint, Dr. Carson Webb.
Webb resigned from Piedmont University on June 14. For five years he served as the Harry R. Butman Chair of Religion and Philosophy. When he resigned, Webb sent a letter to his colleagues, telling them he could no longer be affiliated with Piedmont due to “underhanded,” “unethical,” and even “abusive” behaviors.
“The endowed Harry R. Butman Chair of Religion and Philosophy was established in order to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Butman and the commitment to ethics that plays such a key role in Piedmont’s Congregationalist heritage,” Webb writes. “Unfortunately, Piedmont’s current leadership (and I use that term loosely) has dishonored this legacy to such an extent that I can no longer in good conscience be a part of it.” He goes on to call Piedmont’s senior leadership “embarrassing.”
Now Habersham obtained a copy of Dr. Webb’s letter. In it, he cites various incidents of alleged misconduct by Mellichamp, Smith, and Piedmont University’s Vice President of Finance Brant Wright.
Allegations against Mellichamp and Smith
The now-former professor claims Smith bullied him after he complained to President Mellichamp about a member of the President’s Council who was “violating professional boundaries with a student” and “sowing discord” among employees.
Webb says shortly after sharing his concerns “President Mellichamp began seeking information on my teaching evaluations, and the president’s spouse, Dan Smith, began a pattern of bullying behavior that included manipulation, epithets, intimidation, and angry tirades.” When he consulted a senior administrator about reporting the behavior to Human Resources, Webb says he was advised HR would not help “because Dan Smith is the president’s spouse.”
According to the university website, Smith serves as a Dissertation Support Specialist and Senior Fellow in Education at Piedmont. He’s also referred to as Special Projects Manager in some Piedmont news releases. Webb calls Smith’s hiring “a matter of concern and a fine example of nepotism.”
In addition to the alleged bullying aimed at him, Webb says he saw other faculty members being mistreated. He says he witnessed President Mellichamp “touch an employee inappropriately” and saw an administrator “speak misogynistically to a female employee who was brought to tears.”
“Faculty are regularly dismissed when they bring legitimate concerns to the administration,” he adds.
In one particularly revealing accusation, Webb says he was once told by someone close to Mellichamp to give students artificially high grades, “because we need their tuition money.”
Now Habersham has not been able to independently verify the claims, however, similar complaints in depositions and resignation letters have been lodged by other faculty and students. Now Habersham reached out to Mellichamp and Smith for comment but has not heard back from them.
Layoffs and pushback
As for the allegations against Vice President Wright, Webb accuses him of “egregious mismanagement of financial information.” He says Wright was underhanded in orchestrating faculty layoffs.
On June 7, Piedmont’s Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Dan Silber resigned in protest over those layoffs. In his departure letter to colleagues, Silber accused Wright of withholding relevant financial data from him and leading a process that “failed to be properly inclusive.”
That lack of transparency apparently continued after Silber left, according to Webb. On the day he resigned, Webb says he learned that the interim academic chief Dr. Steve Nimmo also was not being consulted about which faculty positions will be continued next year.
“When I asked him, he was unable to say who was making those decisions or how those decisions were being made.”
Piedmont has laid off dozens of faculty members this year. After an initial round of budget cuts in February, Faculty Senate Chair Dale Van Cantfort said that administrators promised there would be no more reductions. But in April, the Board of Trustees rejected the budget Mellichamp submitted and the president announced that further cuts would have to be made—including 15 additional faculty positions.
When Silber resigned, he called those proposed cuts “morally wrong.” He argued that laying off faculty two months ahead of the start of the academic year left them no “reasonable time frame to obtain employment elsewhere.”
The number of proposed cuts was later negotiated down to four and on June 10, the Faculty Senate announced that the Board of Trustees had passed a budget. As recently as June 16, however, not all returning faculty had received contracts. An anonymous source tells Now Habersham, “It’s still a really grim situation.”
“Those who can find employment elsewhere or can afford to leave are doing so,” they say.
A quagmire and a quasquicentennial
Despite mounting accusations and the faculty’s strong dissatisfaction with the university’s leadership — the Faculty Senate passed a no-confidence vote against Mellichamp in May —Piedmont University Board of Trustees Chair Thomas “Gus” Arrendale has publicly supported the president.
Arrendale defended Mellichamp’s performance in a statement issued after the no-confidence vote. Additionally, in response to the executive committee’s request for trustees to suspend and remove Mellichamp and Smith from campus, he’s tried to distance the board from the process. In an email sent to trustees on June 16 that’s been reviewed by Now Habersham, Arrendale stresses the Faculty Senate is an advisory group to the university’s administration – not the board.
“It is not appropriate for the board to interfere in the matter at this time,” Arrendale tells them.
“The institution has very clear policies that address the concerns raised and which will be followed,” says Piedmont’s Director of Marketing and Communications Rachel Pleasant.
According to Pleasant, President Mellichamp is focused on improving relationships between faculty, staff, and his administration and “moving forward from the events of the recent weeks.”
Piedmont University, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, is preparing to welcome a new class and soon open its largest residence hall. With all the turmoil and turnover, it may be difficult for the beleaguered institution and its stakeholders to celebrate. In addition to three CFOs, critics point out Piedmont has had four deans of education, and now three chief academic officers in five years.
“The toxicity of Piedmont’s culture must be corrected from the top down if the institution is to thrive,” Webb’s letter concludes. “I can only speculate why the Board of Trustees continues to tolerate such unconscionable behavior, but I will no longer be associated with it.” He calls on the board and Piedmont donors to make “ethical decisions” about the university’s future.
A decision impacting Piedmont’s future could come as early as Monday. That’s when the full Board of Trustees is expected to meet on campus to discuss these latest allegations and chart a path forward.
