Faculty Senate passed a resolution Monday to adjust language in the Faculty Handbook after confusion about current wording delayed the start of the search for a new provost.
Senators were upset when Ohio University President Roderick McDavis announced a search committee that did not fit handbook requirements in early January.
The original committee was not chaired by a faculty member and had 23 members, though the handbook calls for a faculty chair and six to 14 members. Faculty also wanted a majority on the committee.
McDavis announced in February that he was forming a new committee of 14 people, eight of whom are faculty, and that biochemistry department chairman Tad Malinski would be chairman.
Yesterday, Faculty Senate voted to change the language in the handbook to avoid future debate over its meaning.
In the new language, faculty specify that they must have the majority and the chairmanship of any academic position where the person hired would acquire faculty rank, such as provosts and deans.
The conflict this year arose from McDavis' assertion that the executive vice president and provost job is not an academic one.
During their discussion, faculty also added a clause clarifying the role of an outside search firm in administrative searches.
... If a search firm is used
the role of the search firm is only advisory to the committee faculty added.
That idea came about after discussion that search firms had become too powerful in OU searches in recent years. Several faculty members complained that rather than the search firm advising an internal search committee, the firms seemed to dictate committee actions.
The provost responds to all Faculty Senate resolutions and changes to the handbook require approval from the president. McDavis has said he will wait for the provost's recommendation on whether to accept these changes.
Faculty Senate Chairman Sergio López-Permouth said he does not anticipate problems because in recent meetings with the president and provost, neither one expressed reservations about the changes.
Considering that after prolonged conversations President McDavis did go back to forming a committee that abides by the guidelines we are describing in this resolution
my expectation is that he now has come to agree with the fact that that is what the Faculty Handbook language meant to say all along
López said.
The policy on searches is repeated in the University Policy and Procedures Manual. There is a separate procedure for changing sections in that document that includes the president's approval.
López said despite the potential discrepancy, the handbook is the senate's focus for now.
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Emily Grannis
