The Honors Program director has been terminated from his position effective Monday with little public explanation, he announced in an email.
Mark Law sent the email Monday morning to Honors students, writing he was made aware of the decision around a month ago.
“I haven’t been provided a reason for [The Board of Trustees’] action,” Law wrote in his email to Honors students and staff. “I’m bitterly disappointed by the Board’s decision.”
Law wrote in the email he was led to believe he was “doing a good job” by administrators, adding he never received a negative performance evaluation. He told The Alligator that Angela Lindner, associate provost for undergraduate affairs and his supervisor, wasn’t given a reason for his termination either.
He was surprised by the decision because of the lack of notice or documentation, he said.
“I’ve been an administrator on campus for a long time, and typically when you have a problem with an employee, you document it before you fire them,” Law said.
Law began his time as the director of the honors program in 2014. He has been a UF professor since 1988, and was the associate dean for academic affairs from 2009 to 2014.
Melissa Johnson, who previously served as the senior associate director of the program, will become interim director. Law wrote in his email he would assist all he could during the transition.
UF spokesperson Florida Bridgewater-Alford confirmed Law’s firing and his replacement by Johnson in a statement to The Alligator Monday evening. Bridgewater-Alford wrote that “the university will not comment further on personnel matters.”
On Tuesday afternoon, UF Provost Joe Glover took responsibility for Law’s termination in a statement to The Alligator.
“The University of Florida Board of Trustees lost confidence in Dr. Mark Law’s leadership as director of UF’s Honors Program,” Glover wrote. “But the decision to remove him from that position was mine and I stand by it.”
The Alligator was informed that Glover would not be available for an interview.
A tenured professor in the College of Engineering, Law said he plans to return to UF to teach after a sabbatical.
“I’m not sure exactly what it’s going to look like, but I’ll go back to being an engineering professor,” Law said.
Contact Christian Casale at ccasale@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @vanityhack.
Christian Casale is a history senior and the university desk editor for The Alligator. In his spare time, he loves writing his bio for the website and watching movies alone in the dark.
