Dr. William Christensen stepping down as Executive Vice President at DSU

Written by Dallas Hyland

Dixie State University Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Dr. William J. Christensen is stepping down from his position. The announcement came today in an official campus-wide email from DSU President Richard B. Williams as well as a press release from DSU Public Relations Coordinator, Jyl Hall.

According to the press release, Dr. Christensen plans to resume his role as a tenured business professor in DSU’s Udvar-Hazy School of Business.

“It has always been my intent and hope to someday return to teaching and scholarship. There’s nothing I enjoy more than teaching and mentoring students,” Dr. Christensen said. “I look forward to continuing to support President Williams and DSU as we move into a bright future, and am grateful for the chance I have had to serve under Presidents Williams and Stephen Nadauld.”

President Williams thanked Christensen for his service to Dixie State University.

“I have appreciated his leadership in the creation of our new strategic plan and look forward to his continued contributions to Dixie as a faculty member,” Williams said.

Amidst ongoing and developing legal proceedings at DSU, while Christensen’s stepping down is being portrayed by the college as his decision, this announcement comes a little over a month after an April 16 DSU Faculty Senate meeting where the posted minutes reflected concerns about Christensen and his competency and integrity in his position. At that meeting, a preliminary vote of “no confidence” was taken, and it was agreed that a letter would be drafted addressing concerns. 

The Faculty Senate meetings usually have the names of the members in attendance adjacent to their comments, but the April 16 minutes had the names removed. 

The recorded minutes began with the following statement: 

Secretary’s note: as per the request of the Faculty Senate membership and because of the sensitive nature of material discussed at this meeting, for these minutes the names of commenters have been redacted and replaced with [dialogue bubble] symbols for today’s meeting only. In addition, a few comments have been altered slightly to remove potentially identifying information.

One anonymous member later stated in the minutes: “Could we release the minutes of today’s meeting without the identifying initials? If these comments are all going to be recorded, I request that we remove the names.”

According to the press release from Hall, President Williams stated that an internal search for an interim replacement and a national search for a new DSU Executive Vice President and Provost will begin immediately.

5/26/15 Editors Correction: 

This story reports: “At that meeting, a preliminary vote of “no confidence” was taken, and it was agreed that a letter would be drafted addressing concerns.”

The minutes of the meeting reflect that a vote was taken and tallied and that the outcome of the vote was against bringing a vote of no confidence to the general faculty and that instead a letter would be drafted addressing concerns. There was not an actual vote of no confidence but rather a vote to decide whether or not to proceed with a vote of no confidence. 

The minutes reflect this here: