Administrators and School of Nursing faculty have remained tight-lipped on what prompted former Dean Mei Fu’s premature resignation in February, leaving the future of the school’s leadership hanging in uncertainty.
Since late February, 61 faculty members in the nursing school declined to or did not return multiple requests for comment on Fu’s less than two-month tenure or why she resigned. University spokesperson Julia Metjian declined to comment on why Fu resigned and how her exit will affect the nursing school’s operations, deferring to remarks Provost Chris Bracey made about Fu’s resignation at the Faculty Senate meeting in March in which he said he selected Forrest Maltzman, a professor of political science and GW’s former provost, to assist him in the search for an interim dean.
“Faculty are not communicating anything regarding this matter, including me,” one nursing school faculty member said in an email in response to a Hatchet inquiry about Fu’s resignation.
The nursing school, which has ranked among the top 30 bachelor’s and master’s degree nursing programs in the country for years, has remained leaderless for four weeks now with no clear timeline for the selection of an interim or permanent dean.
Bracey said at the March senate meeting that Maltzman will oversee the school as Bracey’s “senior adviser” and will help select its next interim dean while officials search for a permanent replacement.
“I wish to acknowledge Dean Mei Fu’s decision to step down as Dean of the School of Nursing, effective March 3, and thank Dr. Fu for her service,” Bracey said in an email to nursing school community members in late February.
Fu, who will continue to act as a tenured professor in the nursing school, did not return two requests for comment.
“I am grateful to the dedicated faculty and staff whom I have closely worked with during my short time as the Dean of SON,” Fu said in the late February email.
When Hatchet staff canvassed the nursing school at Innovation Hall in Ashburn, Virginia to ask faculty about Fu’s resignation in early March, Crystel Farina – the interim associate dean for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program – escorted the Hatchet staffers out of the building at about 4 p.m. Farina declined to answer questions about Fu, adding that faculty would not communicate with The Hatchet on the subject.
The Student Publications and Media section of GW’s Code of Student Conduct prohibits the “arbitrary suspension and removal” of student media because of student, faculty or administrative disapproval of “editorial policy or content.”
Innovation Hall is open to all valid GWorld card holders from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
A search committee of trustees, faculty, staff, an alumna and students selected Fu for the nursing school’s top job in September. When she started the job in January, Fu became the nursing school’s third dean since July 2021, and her resignation continues a period of upheaval in the school’s administration.
Pamela Slaven-Lee, the nursing school’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, served a year-and-a-half-long stint as interim dean of the school from July 2021 to December 2022. Slaven-Lee replaced former dean Pamela Jeffries, who resigned in July 2021 to lead the nursing school at Vanderbilt University after heading GW’s nursing school from 2015 to 2021.
Bracey said Maltzman, the then-chair of the political science department, “worked closely” with Jeffries and Jean Johnson, the founding dean of the nursing school, to reestablish the school in 2010 – nearly 80 years after the first GW nursing school shut down due to the Great Depression.
“Most importantly, he has been a very big champion of the school since its initiation,” Bracey said of Maltzman. “He has a deep respect for the School of Nursing and its mission and has the complete confidence of me and my leadership team as he assumes this role.”
Bracey said Maltzman assumed a similar “volunteer role” with the School of Business when he assisted the business school’s administration in hiring Dean Anuj Mehrotra in 2018.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian declined to say how Maltzman will oversee the school during the search for an interim dean and whether officials plan to appoint an interim dean from within the school. She also declined to share officials’ timeline for finding an interim and permanent dean and if officials have approached Slaven-Lee about returning to her former role.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in English from Guizhou Teachers’ University in 1985 and a master’s degree in English & American Literature from Shandong University in 1991, Fu came to the United States and began her nursing studies. She received a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1997 and a master’s degree in medical-surgical clinical nursing and case management in 2000 before receiving a doctorate degree in nursing science in 2003, all from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Four universities have employed Fu in the last four years. She worked as a professor at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing from 2003 to 2019 and then as a professor at Boston College’s William F. Connell School of Nursing from 2019 to 2021. She then relocated to Rutgers University School of Nursing to serve as a senior associate dean for research in 2021 until she joined GW in January 2023 to assume her shortest-lived role to date as the dean of the School of Nursing.
“Dr. Fu’s wealth of experience in securing funding for impactful research, developing clinical partnerships, supporting faculty and assisting students in advancing their scholarly and career goals, along with her collaborative leadership style, make her an excellent fit to lead the School of Nursing in its second decade,” Bracey said in a University release in September, the month officials announced Fu’s hiring.
