Arts college dean resigns, will return as faculty member
After serving for nearly 11 years as dean, Craig Jessop, the first dean of the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University, announced his resignation Tuesday.
Jessop will step down as dean June 1, 2019, and he will return from a sabbatical in the fall semester of 2020 as a full-time faculty member.
“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to serve, I’m grateful for Utah State University, and particularly grateful to the many students and their families who have come to USU,” Jessop said. “I thank them all. I feel I have been most fortunate to have had this experience.”
Earlier this year, an investigation was launched into the college’s piano program after multiple former students took to Facebook and alleged faculty harassment against students through abuse of power within the music department. The investigation found that faculty mistreatment of students had occurred in the program, and the piano program director Gary Amano retired as a result. While Jessop said his resignation from dean is unrelated to the piano investigation, he said he hopes the program will be stronger for the future and praised the bravery of those students who shared their stories.
“I want to thank those students who bravely came forward and shared with us their pain and their trials. It took a lot of courage, and it humbled me,” he said. “And we are doing everything we can in our power to correct mistakes and to ensure that as we go forward in the future, our program will be stronger and better than ever. Which I’m positive that it will be.”
Whitney Griffith, one of the first women to share her experience with USU’s piano program on Facebook, said she’s disappointed Jessop’s resignation isn’t a result of the piano investigation.
“I’m disappointed to hear that this isn’t part of the change to strengthen the Music department,” she said. “But I’m eager to see the programs thrive under a new dean.”
“It’s time for me to share my story about one of the darkest chapters in my life,” Whitney Griffith wrote on her Facebook in February. “While I was at Utah State University in 2009, I was raped by an instructor in the piano department.”
The Utah Statesman does not normally identify sexual assault victims but Griffith gave permission to be named. Griffith said Jessop didn’t do enough during his time as dean to address the abuse within the piano program.
“Craig had ample time to act on the reported abuse in the music department,” she said. “The very least he can do during his last year is to support and rebuild the piano program; however, I don’t believe it will be effective until someone without a proven track record of discarding students’ concerns takes over.”
Jessop did not immediately respond to request for comment in response to Griffith’s statement, which claimed that he had time to report the abuse in the piano program, but did not.
Griffith said she hopes the new dean will stay involved with each department to prevent “decades of abuse” from continuing “to breed under the rug.”
Rebuilding the piano program is one of the many things Jessop said he will be focusing on in his last year as dean. He described the abuse within the piano program as “a really sad chapter of our history” but that going forward “the college will emerge stronger and better and more able to serve the needs of our students.”
Jessop said he looks forward to his return to teaching and that he “can’t think of any more fulfilling way to end my career than back in the classroom.”
“I’m eager to return to the classroom because it will be the culmination of a career that has been dedicated to the performance of music and teaching others,” he said. “I’m really excited to get back and have my opportunity to really pour my heart out into teaching and passing on to a new generation this lifetime of experiences and opportunities I’ve had.”
Listen to Dean Jessop's plan for his last year as dean.
laurenmarie.bennett@aggiemail.usu.edu
@laurmarben