Faculty Senate voices opposition to closed presidential search
UofL’s Faculty Senate convened last Wednesday on the HSC Campus, opening the meeting with a memorium statement for Dr. Susan Peacock, an instructor with the College of Education and Human Development, who passed away on Aug. 2. It was noted that Peacock was a repeated faculty favorite and held a number of leadership roles, including on the part-time faculty committee.
Senate committee elections were held, and an action item was approved to add a graduate certificate in biostatistics. All courses already exist as part of the master’s program, so no additional resources are needed to launch the certificate program.
Chair Enid Trucios-Haynes presented highlights from the chair’s report, which is available online in its entirety.
She noted her efforts urging board of trustees’ chair David Grissom to advise the campus community about the planned framework for the presidential search process, which he has reported will be a closed search throughout the process. The BOT has received numerous responses to his proposal, including from faculty, chairs, deans and the AAUP.
The Faculty Senate Executive Committee also responded and, after a lengthy discussion, it was motioned and approved that the senate endorse the XC’s letter, which reads:
Dear Members of the Board of Trustees,
The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate is thoroughly opposed to the decision of the Board of Trustees to conduct a closed Presidential search. We feel that severely limiting the input from faculty and other constituents will damage the efforts to cultivate greater transparency, undermine the importance of shared governance, and negatively impact the future working relationship and trust between the faculty and senior leadership.
We believe that more input from constituents, particularly faculty, will assist the search committee throughout the process by providing important institutional history, and thus result in a better outcome. This more inclusive representation would also help restore the confidence of the University’s donors. We urge the Board to reevaluate the search process, and open the search once finalists are selected, allowing faculty, staff and students to interact on campus with each of the finalists. We also strongly recommend that the search committee be expanded to include a broader representation of campus and community constituents, along with a robust engagement of the Redbook mandated faculty consultation committee.
Collaboration is essential to restoring the morale of the faculty, and greater collaboration will serve to unify the administration, students, staff and faculty so that we, the community of the University of Louisville, can focus on moving forward with our values, goals and initiatives.
Sincerely,
The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate & The Faculty Senate
Source: Faculty Senate voices opposition to closed presidential search (UofL News, Oct. 10, 2017)
