University of New Mexico faculty today will send regents their recommendations on hiring a president, and the report will represent more than the 30 members who met last week.
Some in that forum expressed strong opposition to finalists Robert Frank and Meredith Hay.
Faculty Senate President Tim Ross said Monday that opinions from the forum will be considered, but the formal recommendations will include faculty ballots and other comment forms.
“The trends that were evident at the meeting, whether they’re borne out, I won’t know for another day,” Ross said.
Regents are scheduled to meet privately today to discuss the presidential selection. They are to decide on Jan. 4.
Some of the faculty who gathered to discuss pros and cons of the finalists last week emphasized opposition to Hay and Frank, saying Frank was known for overly aggressive leadership that pushed change as provost at Kent State University. They said Hay failed to sufficiently include faculty in deliberating $180 million in budget cuts as provost at the University of Arizona.
There were no public defenders of the two finalists at that meeting, although Ross initiated faculty discussion on candidates with a positive comment for each. No formal vote was taken.
Ross declined to say whether, after Friday’s meeting, he would recommend either Frank or Hay as a replacement for David Schmidly when Schmidly’s contract expires in May.
“I need to look at all the data first. If the 900 and so odd faculty chime in and there’s strong support for either one of those (candidates), then certainly, yes,” Ross said. “… It may turn out that the hundreds of other inputs that we collect on those ballots may support that trend” shared during the Friday forum. Ballots were cast after each candidate addressed UNM faculty and staff in public forums on campus.
In response to the story in Saturday’s Journal, several Kent State public health deans and faculty wrote a letter shooting down the claims that Frank had a reputation for antagonism toward faculty. “The faculty attending a public forum at the University of New Mexico implied that Dr. Frank lacks a sufficient record of teamwork with faculty. … He has at no time been antagonistic to the faculty within our college,” wrote Sonia Alemangno, dean of Kent State’s College of Public Health, a program Frank created.
Ross, in an email to the presidential search committee, said media would “absolutely not” receive a copy of the faculty report.
UNM professor Barbara McCrady in an email said she hopes publication of concerns about Frank and Hay did not scare off the candidates. “I do hope our candidates’ skins are sufficiently thick to withstand the reporting in the Journal … , ” McCrady wrote.
While faculty are preparing formal recommendations, UNM’s Staff Council members will make individual comments to regents. Graduate students have a recommendation for regents based on student comments, but student president Katie Richardson would not say what it is. The undergraduate president did not respond to a request for information.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
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