LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - University of Nebraska faculty members are voicing their opposition to a proposed change that would limit or even eliminate faculty and student participation in the hiring of senior administrators.
The university’s Board of Regents is considering changing its bylaws to exclude students and faculty from consideration in hiring campus administrators, including chancellors, vice chancellors and deans, the Lincoln Journal Star reported (https://bit.ly/1wyYRjk ) Friday.
The proposed change comes as the university looks to replace J.B. Milliken, who left the NU president’s post last month to become chancellor of the City University of New York.
Despite the insistence by the central administration at the university that the changes were proposed in March, faculty senate members only learned of the proposed changes within recent days, UNL Faculty Senate President and biology professor Ken Nickerson said.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln history professor Will Thomas said the proposed changes are alarming to all faculty members.
“I’m concerned that several of these changes eliminate basic requirements in search procedures that have been intended to ensure a fair process and one that has faculty and student representation,” Thomas said.
Nickerson said he and other faculty would like to see the proposed restrictions apply only to the presidential search - not to other academic administrative positions.
Faculty are crucial in evaluating a candidate’s scholarly background, credentials and activity in research and teaching, Thomas said. Taking faculty out of the search process for campus leadership positions would adversely affect NU, he added.
“We need to be hiring academic leaders who achieve at the very highest levels of scholarship and teaching, and I think our colleagues who have similarly achieved at that level know what they’re looking for,” Thomas said.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com
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