Speaking to the Bloomington Faculty Council Tuesday, IU President Adam Herbert laid down key elements and a timetable for finding a replacement for IU-Bloomington chancellor and vice president for academic affairs Sharon Brehm.\nBrehm, who announced her resignation last Thursday, will step down from her position Dec. 31. \nHerbert also said he wanted to create a chief academic officer at IU, a position he described as "essential for any major research university to have."\n"All of the campuses want to award a degree that says 'Indiana University,'" Herbert said. "My belief, in that context, is that the chief academic officer must be from (the Bloomington) campus ... What happens on the other campuses has an impact here. If it is an Indiana University degree, there must be some potential impact from this campus on what takes place on the others."\nHerbert also addressed what characteristics he will be looking for in an interim vice president and chancellor.\nHerbert said the selected person should be someone with the confidence of the IU faculty behind him or her, along with a knowledge of some of the history, traditions and organizational structures of IU. The interim chancellor should also be someone who has been a successful senior-level administrator, he added.\n"I see senior level being someone who has had experience at the dean's level or above, who understands something about the dynamics of the institution," he said. "It is difficult to make some of the decisions that have to be made if you haven't had experience at least at the dean's level."\nHerbert said he also will look for someone to aid in developing the position's description for the eventual restructuring of the role.\nHerbert's final areas of concern for the interim chancellor focus primarily on commitment and ability to work with the faculty through this process.\n"I think that the president has shown, in his comments today and in other comments previously, that he has a commitment to involving faculty-governess bodies like the faculty council in all of these discussions," BFC President David Daleke said. "I anticipate us having an active involvement in the description of this new position or how the position might change in the future."\nHerbert also set several guidelines for the selection of the interim chancellor. He said the person selected should hold a faculty appointment -- current or previous -- on the Bloomington campus.\nHerbert made it clear the interim position holder will not be a candidate for the permanent selection to be made next year.\nA decision on who will step into the interim role is expected in the next two weeks, Herbert said. \nFrom there, a search committee will spend the spring semester assessing the role that needs to be filled, and looking into what they want out of potential candidates. Herbert said he expects the process of finding a permanent chancellor to begin in fall 2004, with a final decision coming sometime in late fall or early spring of that school year.\nHerbert said much of this need for restructuring comes as a result of IU once being a University built around personalities as opposed to logical structures. The personal relationships began to guide the decisions being made by the University, he said. \n"Sometimes those relationships transcended the organizational structure ... Over time this was going to be problematic," Herbert said. "As people began to retire, the University would have to come to grips with the fact that it had to have a more coherent structure to guide its operations."\nAnd maximizing efficiency of complex systems is a professed passion of Herbert's.\n"One of the things I am committed to doing is engaging in that kind of process," Herbert said. "Looking very carefully at how we are organized makes sure we are addressing all the needs of the University in a very systematic and responsible fashion."
Restructuring Underway\nIU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm announced that the position of vice chancellor previously held by Vice President for Student Development and Diversity Charlie Nelms has already been filled on an interim basis. Edwardo Rhodes, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, will take over as interim vice chancellor while Nelms continues to hold his VP position. \n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
