LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — Wayne State University’s School of Medicine lost its interim leader in the midst of a faculty revolt over how administrators sidelined his predecessor.

The resignation.

Dr. David Rosenberg resigned from the acting dean post over the weekend, saying he took the role without realizing the school’s executive committee—normally consulted in leadership changes—had been cut out. The lack of explanation for why longtime dean Dr. Wael Sakr was placed on leave last month, Rosenberg added, has only fueled faculty anger.

MORE NEWS: VP Vance to Visit Michigan on Wednesday 

“While I was told that this was an emergent and temporary situation, in hindsight, I should have inquired whether this had been done,” Rosenberg wrote in a letter to staff, noting that orders to avoid contact with Sakr raised concerns about free speech and academic freedom. 

Rosenberg will stay on as chair of psychiatry, according to the Detroit Free Press.

How did the controversy start?

The controversy began when Wayne State’s vice president of health affairs announced Sakr’s abrupt leave in August, citing only “personnel matters.” Nearly 200 faculty members have since signed a letter demanding due process for Sakr, calling the silence “defamation by implication.”

Union president Jennifer Sheridan Moss said the uproar is unusual. “It’s very hard to get faculty riled up about anything, but the School of Medicine faculty were very angry.”

Sakr, a pathologist who has spent 35 years at Wayne State, has denied allegations of sexual misconduct, financial issues, or racial bias. Still, his name appears in a pending federal lawsuit: a Black physician claims Sakr passed him over for a leadership post in favor of a less-qualified white colleague. Wayne State insists the case lacks merit.

“Dean Sakr and I have been close colleagues and good friends for many years, and I have always known him to be a man of good character with unwavering devotion to the School of Medicine and University,” Rosenberg wrote.