Faculty wants administration to focus on academics in delaying provost search

IU Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm reemphasized her commitment to the hiring of a provost at Tuesday's Bloomington Faculty Council meeting, one day after announcing that the search would be postponed until next year. \nBrehm's decision to delay the provost search comes in light of President Myles Brand's decision to leave IU. She said faculty distress over the hiring of two top level administrators at the same time convinced her to sit on the provost plan for a year. \n"I feel very strongly that this new position is needed," she said. "If this sort of reorganization does not occur, this campus will not make the progress it needs."\nThe IU provost under Brehm's plan will absorb many of the Chancellor's academic duties to free up time for fundraising, legislative and alumni activities. \nSome of the faculty said they aren't convinced that's the direction the campus should take.\nProfessor Bennet Brabson asked Brehm to "keep open the possibility of maintaining the present circumstances."\n"I imagine a world where Brehm becomes absorbed by the legislature and fundraising, and I'm afraid we're going to lose (her) as part of us as a faculty," he said. \nProfessor Barry Rubin said he worries the provost will add "another layer" of bureaucracy, making it more difficult to access the Chancellor.\nBrehm will meet informally with faculty next semester to discuss the implications of the plan. She said the provost is part of a broader movement to centralize campus organization, starting with strategic planning. \n"If we don't operate as a campus, we won't be effective," she said. "The most obvious place is undergraduate programs, (which) aren't nearly as well coordinated as they need to be." \nThe expansion of the Chancellor's roles at the same time as the hiring of a new president has sparked a reexamination of University administrative structure. BFC President Bob Eno, also a member of the presidential search committee, said the search will begin with defining the role of the president, which has historically been very strong. \n"We may want to move toward a new system," Eno said. "That's an ongoing job for the search committee."\nThe Faculty Council discussed the administrative models at Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota.\n"I don't see any of those models fitting us here," Eno said. "We have to do a home-grown model."\nBrehm originally announced her intentions to add a provost at the Oct. 1 BFC meeting. She said some applications have already been received and will be sent back.