UC Office of President ratchets up its own influence in chancellor search
Santa Cruz Sentinel 4/2/07
But some faculty leaders say a newly revised policy guiding chancellor searches for all University of California campuses will significantly undermine whatever influence faculty once wielded in the process. Language in the UC-wide policy, formulated in response to concerns from UCSC professors, reduces the faculty's ability to screen candidates on a wide range of qualities — such as educational philosophy and leadership — to a narrow consideration of their academic qualifications.
"Recent and major changes in wording further advance this relentless move to minimize faculty initiative, to eliminate all accountability and to afford [UC President Robert Dynes] virtually autocratic control of the process while reducing campus influence to a nullity," Forrest Robinson, a professor in American Studies, wrote in a letter to a group of 180 like-minded UCSC faculty members calling themselves "The Coalition"
Citing widespread dissatisfaction with the 2004 appointment of the late Denice Denton, the group raised objections in December to UC's practice — commonplace since the 1980s — of keeping the names of candidates from the public, and limiting membership on the 16-member search committee to three local faculty.
The response from Dynes' office in January was to codify those practices into a new document titled, "Selection Process to Advise the President of the Selection of a Chancellor for a UC Campus"
New wording in a second draft, issued to UCSC leaders in February, went further — restricting comments from faculty members on the search committee to include just the academic qualifications of each candidate.
UC Regents have not adopted the changes, but a UC spokesman said that, if necessary, they would be put before the board for a vote.
The coalition of UCSC faculty says it simply wants a stronger voice in the hiring process.
"The basic agenda of the faculty coalition is simply to increase faculty participation and transparency in the search for our new chancellor," Robinson said.
When the search committee's work is done, the sole authority to select a new chancellor still rests with Dynes. Since UC chancellors manage their campuses under the authority of Dynes and the regents, UC Office of the President officials have said it only makes sense to give them the final say.
The Office of the President did not immediately return calls to comment, but spokesman Michael Reese had previously said UCSC faculty have "substantial" input in the search process.
Ken Doctor, who sat on the chancellor search committee in 2004, disagrees. He said last week that the current rules go too far to limit the committee's role in the process, even if it's just an advisory one.
"One problem was that we didn't have a whole view of the person in order to give the right advice to Dynes," he said. "We had an academic view put in binders by UC's private search firm, and you can only find out some things in a 75-minute interview. I think the next advisory committee should be more fully engaged in understanding candidates as whole people, including an in-depth reference check"
Committee members are barred from conducting their own background checks on candidates.
Santa Cruz City Councilman Mike Rotkin, also a longtime campus lecturer, said that changes to the chancellor search process since the 1980s are consistent with the erosion of faculty power in other areas, such as who decides what academic programs get developed.
"There's a lot more begging these days, but the faculty used to have a much greater say in governance issues," Rotkin said. "Now, faculty are just employees"
The faculty coalition has drafted a statement that summarizes the qualities and commitments they want in a new chancellor. They are asking for someone who will engage the community over town-gown issues and who will address an "alarming deterioration of undergraduate education at UCSC" The statement also calls for a new chancellor with a reputation for openness, and would be sensitive to the "special history, mission and current circumstances of the campus"