After 14 years of service with Elizabethtown College, associate professor of marketing Dr. Ed Chung will retire following the spring 2018 semester. Chung’s departure leaves associate professor of marketing Dr. Bryan Greenberg as the only remaining marketing professor at the College.
Chung gave notice of his retirement to the College a year ago, and the business department asked the College to replace Chung’s position in marketing. However, that request was denied.
The business department then revised their initial proposal during October, requesting to have a visiting professor fill Chung’s position in the meantime. That request was also denied. The administration later gave the reasoning behind their decision.
“Each year, there are more position requests [from the departments] than can be approved … We address a priority,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development and professor of psychology Dr. Betty Rider. Later, she added, “This is not the only time there has been a single [concentration] specialist at the College.”
Given that the College has not filled Chung’s position, the business department, specifically associate professor of management and Department Chair Dr. Cristina Ciocirlan, launched a petition online to ask the College again to approve the department’s request for a visiting professor.
In addition to starting the petition, the business department has taken measures to ensure that their marketing students will be able to meet the graduation requirements.
BA416, Marketing Management, is a required class for the marketing concentration that Chung teaches. For the spring 2018 semester, the prerequisite for BA416 has been waived, and the class size was increased to accommodate as many juniors as possible who need to take the class in the spring.
“I’ve done this before, just not on a full scale,” Chung said about raising the class size. “It’s harder to give personal attention when there’s a lot of students … but I can teach them as much as possible.”
BA416 is required for all juniors who wish to graduate in December 2018 and May 2019. Juniors will not be able to graduate if they do not register for BA416 for spring 2018. Chung and the business department both hope to solve, on a case-by-case basis, the problems that may arise because of junior marketing majors studying abroad in the spring or other extreme circumstances.
Marketing electives for upcoming semesters are limited due to Chung’s retirement as well. Only three electives (Consumer Behavior, Promotions Management and Seminar in Marketing) will be offered in spring 2018. Other electives will be taught in summer 2018 and fall 2018, but at this time no electives will be offered in spring 2019 since the other marketing professor, Greenberg, will be taking sabbatical.
News of Chung’s retirement and Greenberg’s sabbatical have made numerous marketing students nervous. Juniors who will be studying abroad or who have not taken the prerequisite to prepare themselves for BA416 are among the most worried in the program. However, some students have had their concerns lessened because of professors looking out for them.
“I can’t say more for others, but the faculty members are looking out for us,” said junior Kira Kuhar. “It’s all going to be okay. Juniors will miss opportunities [for themselves] if they worry too much. Juniors are the ones with the most concerns.”
“We solved some of the problems with the juniors, and hopefully sophomores can figure out what to do,” Chung stated.
“Juniors don’t need to worry. Students won’t be held back if someone takes sabbatical,” Rider said. “This is sort of a typical event in the life of a college or university.”
The petition was created three weeks ago. Within a week, it reached 263 signatures before the business department closed the petition from further signatures.
The petition has since been delivered to the College, and the administration has expressed a desire to continue working with the business department and other departments on faculty management and student learning.
