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Professor Susanne Lohmann may resign from her position in the political science department as a r

As a founding member of the human complex systems program at UCLA, Susanne Lohmann would probably want to study the web of human interaction enveloping the UCLA political science department – that is, if she weren’t wrapped up in it.

Lohmann, a political science professor and director of the UCLA Center for Governance, will likely resign from her position as a result of departmental politics.

Lohmann is an internationally ranked economist and is well liked by her students, but she said she might relocate to University of Hamburg because the UCLA political science department has refused to let her teach human complex systems, a prospective interdisciplinary program that would explore social complexities through simulation and modeling.

The University of Hamburg has offered Lohmann an endowed chair that comes with several hundred thousand dollars in research funding, and she said UCLA has not made a counter-offer. She believes her participation in HCS has turned the department against her.

“I said if they wanted to retain me they would have to give me a 50 percent appointment in human complex systems and some funding for it,” she said. “That’s what made my chair go ballistic.”

But Michael Lofchie, chairman of the political science department, is “frankly bewildered” by these allegations.

“(Lohmann) has been told unambiguously that she can cross-list political science courses with human complex systems, when it comes into existence,” Lofchie said.

Lofchie said many political science professors also teach in interdisciplinary programs like international development studies, but that those professors are still employed by the department.

“Professor Lohmann may be under the misimpression that these faculty members may have moved out of their department and into a new unit. If she has that impression, it is not true,” he said.

Lofchie said he was not aware of a problem with Lohmann teaching any course that would be cross-listed with political science.

But Dwight Read, an anthropology professor and chairman of the human complex systems committee, said he spoke with Lofchie and said they could not reach a satisfactory agreement about Lohmann’s participation.

Dario Nardi, a UCLA math professor who is currently teaching a lab for human complex systems that simulates interactions with robots, said many conflicting stories about Lohmann’s dilemma have been circulating recently.

Marco Verweij, who taught policy studies at UCLA last spring and is a professor at Singapore Management University, sees a darker side of the situation.

Verweij said Lohmann made enemies in the political science department when she shifted away from the department’s adopted “rational choice” philosophy of economics – that people will logically follow their self-interests – and that she has occasionally been too outspoken for her own good.

“I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but in this case I cannot think of any other reason ... I think they are trying to push her out of UCLA,” Verweij said.

Lofchie called Verweij’s suggestions “categorically untrue.”

Bill McKelvey, a professor in the Anderson School of Management who is slated to replace Lohmann on the core faculty for the prospective human complex systems program, said the political science department might be resistant to letting Lohmann teach in human complex systems out of jealousy of their resources.

Lohmann has been one of the primary forces behind the development of human complex systems at UCLA, but Read said it will move ahead without her.

Read said HCS could not move forward because Lohmann was not allowed to teach, but with McKelvey teaching in her place, the proposal to make human complex systems a minor degree program will go to the Academic Senate.

“This has forced Susanne to realize that she should make a decision,” Read said.

“Her primary reason for staying here is human complex systems, and now she has decided that there is no reason that she should stay at UCLA,” he said.