RISD president to hold campus-wide discussion

PROVIDENCE — A simmering dispute at the Rhode Island School of Design has prompted the school’s new president to call for a campus-wide discussion after members of the board of the school’s museum expressed their displeasure with the abrupt departure of its well-liked director.

John Maeda plans to answer questions Tuesday about the resignation this month of Museum Director Hope Alswang. The meeting will be held on campus and is open to students, faculty and staff, but is closed to the public.

The meeting will come after several members of the museum’s board on Friday sent a letter to the school’s board of trustees harshly criticizing how Maeda has handled this month’s departure of Hope Alswang. In the letter, obtained by The Providence Journal, 19 of the museum board’s 30 members demanded that the school trustees immediately meet with them to discuss it.

Alswang has declined to discuss her resignation, and RISD has said only that she left voluntarily. But her departure was so surprising and swift that some members of the museum’s and school’s boards said they were shocked and angered. Some said they were rethinking their donations to the museum.

“Within our own Board of Governors, the current sentiment about Alswang’s departure runs from puzzlement and disappointment to outrage,“ according the letter.

Maeda, a graphic designer and former MIT professor with no past college administrator experience, is entering his second year as the head of one of the country’s most prestigious art schools, known commonly as RISD (RIZ’dee). He’s asked students to call him by his first name, and is known for blogging and using Twitter and other technology to connect with students.

Like many schools, RISD has suffered in the poor economic climate. Its endowment dropped from $374 million in December 2007 to about $250 million in May, officials said. It was forced to lay off staff and close the museum, which holds 84,000 objects, for the entire month of August.