On Jan. 11 of this year, Milligan President Don Jeanes sent this message by e-mail to all faculty and staff:
“Dr. Phil Roberson has resigned for personal reasons as the Director of Teacher Education and Area Chair. Today I announce to the Education Faculty that Dr. Billye Joyce Fine will be the interim Director of Teacher Education and Dr. Bert Allen will be the interim area chair. These appointments are effective today.”
The president praised Roberson, saying he had “been instrumental in helping us through NCATE re-accreditation and resolving some licensure issues with the State of Tennessee.”
Within two months of this announcement, however, Roberson told the Stampede that he did not resign voluntarily but was asked to leave by the president. Jeanes and Academic Dean Mark Matson have said repeatedly that they could not respond to Roberson’s charges because of confidentiality agreements.
Roberson began his Milligan teaching career in the fall of 1998 as an associate professor of education. He served as an associate professor, chair and director of teacher education since the spring of 2000. Before coming to Milligan, Roberson taught in the education department at Utah Valley State College and, before that, the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He has also served as an early childhood program supervisor for Oklahoma City Public Schools and as a child development specialist while completing his doctoral dissertation at Oklahoma State University and searching for a permanent university position.
Roberson’s replacement, Billye Joyce Fine, is a Milligan alumna. She earned her doctorate of education from Nova Southeastern University and has a long record of teacher education and curriculum writing, mainly in the Christian private school and Sunday school area. She and her husband, Eddie, served Central Christian Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., and its associated school for 40 years before retiring to Johnson City last year. Eddie Fine, also a Milligan alumnus, is now senior minister at Downtown Christian Church, and he is a member of the college board of trustees.
“The first semester we were back, fall 2001, I was mainly an adjunct professor supervising interns and student teachers,” said Billye Joyce Fine.
Fine was interviewed one year before and was hired on contract, but Matson said the administration had been looking for a way “to fit her in.”
The announcement of Roberson’s resignation followed a Jan. 2 meeting between him, Jeanes and Matson. Roberson said he had scheduled a December meeting with the dean to discuss the annual evaluation of a fellow member of the education faculty. After being rescheduled at least twice, according to Roberson, a meeting was finally scheduled for Jan. 2 in the dean’s office. When Roberson arrived, he was surprised, he said, to see Jeanes also present.
“The president’s participation regarding the matter and his presence at the early January meeting were never raised by myself or the dean,” said Roberson.
Roberson claimed that Jeanes gave him a paper to read, and, “it was like a one page letter of dismissal.” Jeanes, he said, told him they had “decided to go in a different direction.”
Roberson said he was given a sample resignation letter to use as a guide in writing his own. It included a paragraph saying that he was not coerced, which he claims is verbatim from the sample. He said the president and dean did not let him keep a copy. Roberson said Jeanes then gave him other alternatives, which included resigning from both positions immediately or retaining only his faculty position until end of the spring semester. Roberson said the call for his resignation was “a shock” to him and his family.
“I agreed to resign in lieu of being dismissed,” he said. Roberson had one more year until becoming eligible for tenure. According to the Faculty Handbook, non-tenured faculty can be dismissed without cause; after tenure, the college must furnish a reason.
Roberson submitted two resignation letters, both dated and submitted Jan. 3, 2002. The first letter, his resignation as area chair and director of teacher education, was effective immediately. The letter announcing his resignation from the early childhood education faculty position would be effective May 31, 2002. The second letter, which stated that Roberson was not coerced into resigning, was unannounced until later in the spring, according to Roberson.
“When I let him know that I wanted to stay in the faculty position through the end of May and that I would serve wherever I could in the transition…it still hadn’t been announced who would replace me,” said Roberson. “They [the president and dean] told me I had to be out of my office by Jan. 11.”
Matson said, “I don’t recall anything at all like this. If anyone had said so, it would have been me and I did not.”
Roberson received financial compensation through Oct. 3 of this year, in accordance with Milligan policy stated in the faculty handbook regarding faculty who are not given a termination notice before Dec. 1.
According to the president, Fine was contacted about the position “somewhere between in that process, between when he talked to us and when he actually submitted [his resignation].”
Fine, however, said she was approached earlier. “In December [2001], I was asked to meet with Dr. Jeanes and Dr. Matson regarding teaching courses and becoming interim director of education,” she said.
“Dr. Fine had had her whole career in elementary education, principal and director of a Christian school,” Jeanes said. “Her specialty is early childhood, which is the area of specialty of Dr. Roberson. She was already teaching some, part-time, so we asked her to be director of graduate education.”
According to Pat Magness, professor of humanities and English and chair of the recent self-study for re-accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the visiting SACS team made two commendations following its visit to Milligan in February 2002, one on the self-study process and the other on the graduate education department that Roberson led. The team commended the graduate education faculty members for “exemplary practice in teaching and exceptional service to their students and the community.”
Roberson told the Stampede that his relationship with the president and the dean was strained before the Jan. 2 meeting, and he disagreed with the dean on many issues, such as technology issues related to the Clark Education Building addition and questions about the budget and tuition money related to the master of education program.
“I feel like I was expected to be a ‘yes man’ on many issues and go along with the decisions that were made higher up, and I’m not that kind of person,” said Roberson. “I’m more inclined to question things. I don’t think my approach was a good fit for their management styles.”
Bert Allen, interim chair of education in Roberson’s place, is a friend to both Roberson and Matson. Besides sharing the same employer, Allen and Roberson shared many of the same interests, being military veterans of the same era. They often ran together. But even Allen was surprised at Roberson’s departure.
“I knew nothing about [Roberson] leaving until it was a done deal,” said Allen. “Resignation or termination - whatever it was.”
Administrators maintain that they are unable to discuss the matter because of confidentiality policies.
“I’m not at liberty to expand any further,” Matson wrote in an e-mail on Oct. 8. “I am sorry that I can’t further answer these questions.”
With Roberson’s written permission, the Stampede requested to see his personnel file in October, but was refused by the dean, who cited reasons of confidentiality.
On Oct. 29, Matson wrote in another e-mail, “I can say that as dean, no circumstance surrounding an issue with a staff member or faculty member of Milligan College has violated careful regard for balance or in any way violated a policy outlined in the faculty handbook.”
Matson also wrote that “no decision or action has ever been made by me alone, but only with extensive consultation and discussion, often with the president, cabinet and often faculty members are included in the discussions.”
There is some discrepancy as to exactly when Fine was named director of the department. Fine first recalls being named interim director, however, Matson said Fine was always
considered permanent.
“She was hired as director,” said Matson. “We never made the distinction between interim and permanent. Director of Teacher Education is an administrative assignment that is subject to the appointment of the dean so I guess it is always potentially temporary. But we never made that an issue with Billye Joyce…In my recollection, Bert Allen was an interim appointment, since we asked him to step in until we could find a chair. But Billye Joyce was always deemed Director.”
Roberson now serves as an associate professor of education and director of teacher education at King College in Bristol, Tenn.