Letter to the Editor: AAUP demands faculty involvement in provost search
AAUP Executive Committee states the search for a University Provost ignores established governance processes. Faculty should be involved in a decision that will affect them so greatly. Michael Sullivan | Contributing Photographer
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To the Campus Community:
The American Association of University Professors Executive Committee would like to express our concern about the administration not following established governance processes for appointing the role of University Provost, such as appointing a search committee and including the University Senate in the process.
While we do not object to Dr. Lois Agnew in particular having the opportunity to serve as Provost, we are concerned about the dangerous precedent set by the suspension of shared governance and established processes in the Senate by-laws for administrative appointments, a process that might, among other things, establish a clear end-date for this unusual appointment.
The current policies are in place to ensure that academic leadership is, at least to some small part, accountable to the community they oversee. This is especially important in the current context of erosion of faculty and Senate power nationwide in ways both large and small.
Unilaterally appointing a provost to a potentially permanent position underscores the lack of Senate participation in determining the academic leadership of the university.
It is especially important to involve the faculty in a central way in appointing a Provost, who is the Chief Academic Officer, and, as such, represents the faculty, who are the principal guardians of the integrity of the academic mission. Shared governance requires the continual respect of and adherence to the mutually crafted policies both large and small that have been developed via the thoughtful deliberations of the University Senate.
If those policies can be set aside at will by the Chancellor and other administrative leaders, then the fundamental architecture that supports shared governance is diminished and the decision-making that follows from the subsequent procedures is undermined.
The parallel undertaking of a large-scale review of academic programs and departments also makes it a particularly problematic time to suspend typical appointment processes for this role. The processes and outcomes associated with the recently announced Academic Portfolio Review will have profound implications for the academic context of Syracuse University and having those changes implemented by a Provost who has been appointed outside of established governance processes will compound an already highly problematic process.
We urge the Chancellor to reconsider his plan and to follow established procedures for the appointment rather than merely solicit comments.
AAUP Executive Committee
Crystal Bartolovich – President
Tony Scott – Vice President
Diane Grimes – Treasurer
Matthew Mulvaney – Secretary
Rusty Bartels– Non-TT Faculty Representative
Eileen E. Schell – Member at Large
Matt Huber – Past President
