Eight faculty members, one staff member and three students will join the Board of Trustees in selecting Syracuse University’s 12th chancellor.

The University Senate finalized which campus members will serve on the chancellor search committee out of approximately 50 nominations at its final meeting of the fall semester, held Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. The senate will resume meetings on Jan. 16.

Chancellor Nancy Cantor announced on Oct. 12 that she plans to leave the university when her contract expires in 2014. In November, the Board announced seven trustees would serve on the committee, with 1972 alumna Joanne Alper, vice chair of the Board and a retired judge, chairing the committee.

Faculty joining the committee will be: Kris Byron, Martin J. Whitman School of Management; Martha Garcia-Murillo, School of Information Studies; Dawn Johnson, School of Education; Deborah Pellow, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; Kendall Phillips, College of Visual and Performing Arts; Eric Schiff, College of Arts and Sciences; Radhakrishna Sureshkumar, College of Engineering and Computer Science; Silvio Torres-Saillant, College of Arts and Sciences. Ryan Williams, associate vice president for enrollment management and director of scholarships and student aid, is the sole staff member.

Student Association and Graduate Student Organization suggested the student members of the committee: PJ Alampi, current chair of SA’s Student Life Committee and a junior film major, and Ivan Rosales-Robles, vice-chair of elections and membership at SA and a sophomore business management and public policy major. The third student member is Patrick Neary, a Ph.D. candidate in the mathematics department and vice president of the GSO.

Bruce Carter, chair of the senate’s Agenda Committee, presented the list of names, which the senate approved. The nominees were not informed before the meeting that they were part of the final selection, but all proposed nominees agreed to serve if selected.

Before voting to approve or decline the nominations, members of the senate pressed Carter for more details regarding the selection process and background of each member. Carter reminded the senate that the chosen committee members should not be representing their own school or college, but the institution as a whole.

Members also questioned how many committee members had a background in university administration.

Carter declined to go into specifics as to why each member was chosen, but said the committee did aim for diversity, considering gender, ethnicity and university background. Because of the number of faculty on the committee, not every school or college can be represented. The committee also did not receive nominations from every school or college and some did not accept their nomination.

“I can only tell you that we carefully selected all of them. To talk any more would take four or five hours,” Carter said.

The search to find SU’s 12th chancellor is expected to take between a year and a year and a half to complete.

Internal investigations committee delayed

An ad hoc committee charged with the task of reviewing the university’s policies and practices, and how they align with the university’s actions, is postponing its report.

A report was expected from the committee, established in January, no later than this month. Kristi Andersen, a professor of political science and chair of the committee, said the committee needs more time because of the complexity of the topic. The committee plans to present an interim report in January.

The senate announced at its January 2012 meeting that it would form the committee to independently study the administration’s policies and practices, acting on concerns that the 2005 investigation into the Bernie Fine sexual abuse allegations was done by the university’s own law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King.

The committee is separate from efforts the administration has made to review how the Fine investigation was handled. The Board of Trustees also reviewed the policies and practices of investigations by the administration and released its report in July.

The committee will determine whether university policies include: adequate procedures for a full and fair investigation; rules in place to notify the proper authorities when civil or criminal crimes are involved; adequate time to inform university governance bodies of administrative proceedings; and due process for all involved.

Other business discussed:

• Membership to an ad hoc committee to review the university’s promotion process and how it compares to other institutions is finalized and will be announced once all members have been informed of their positions, Carter said. The Board of Trustees asked the senate to convene the faculty-led body of its choosing in May when heated discussion arose over the promotion process of faculty in the College of Law.
• The senate approved a report from the committee on curricula on new and changed courses. The report included 30 proposed new courses.

 

Published on December 6, 2012 at 5:48 am

Contact Dara: [email protected] | @daramcbride