Dive Brief:
- All three finalists for the vacant chancellor position at University of Massachusetts Boston withdrew from the search process Monday, following public criticism and questioning of their qualifications by a group of faculty members at the institution.
- “None of the final candidates have demonstrated that they are sufficiently qualified to serve as the chancellor of the only public research university in the Greater Boston area and the most diverse four-year public institution in New England,” the Boston Globe reported the group said about the pool of finalists. The candidates were Kathy Humphrey, a senior vice president at the University of Pittsburgh (a public research institution); Jack Thompson, president of Western Illinois University; and Peter Lyons, Georgia State University vice provost and dean.
- Though many on campus, including students and most faculty members, were pleased with the way the search was going, the criticisms of the finalists — which some believe to be racially motivated, as two of the three finalists were African-American — and their subsequent withdrawal from consideration has left the institution forced to name its second interim president rather than continue the search process. “The very public way this search came to an end ... renders a new search untenable at this time,’’ wrote system President Martin Meehan in a letter to the UMass Boston campus Monday.
Dive Insight:
As campus leaders continue to navigate what shared governance should look like for their institutions, it is abundantly clear that faculty members will not be ignored on major decisions involving their colleges. More and more, there is discussion of a need to propagate a "student-first" approach to campus operations; these initiatives can sometimes go against professors' and even individual institution interests — but if faculty members are not on board, few initiatives can be successful. Faculty member votes of no-confidence in leadership can lead to dismantling of an administration or bring accreditors knocking demanding answers.
The UMass Boston condemnation of the chancellor candidates did not originate from the faculty senate, but with a small group of influencers who did not represent a majority and whose grumblings were loud enough to suspend an entire search.
Identifying who the faculty influencers are is one way to help stay ahead of any brewing discontent. One leader recently shared that he asked his institution's IT department to give him a list of the most active email accounts to help identify those individuals, but the same might be achieved by walking the campus frequently and noting which offices are frequented by other faculty members.