Trustees undecided on whether to review Herbert

Members of the IU board of trustees said Wednesday they will carefully consider any resolutions passed by the Bloomington faculty concerning IU-Bloomington's leadership.\nTwo resolutions are close to being passed, officials said during a press conference after a mass meeting of the IUB faculty Tuesday.\nOne resolution asks for a review of IU President Adam Herbert's performance. The other asks that the new IUB chancellor and senior vice president for academic affairs be selected with IUB's best interests in mind.\nThe mass meeting and resolutions came after increasing criticism of Herbert's performance prompted 131 professors to petition the Bloomington Faculty Council for a mass meeting of the faculty to discuss the issue.\nAt Tuesday's meeting, about 620 voting members of the faculty debated the resolutions. Because the rules of the meeting required 800 members of the faculty to be present to ratify any resolutions, the voting will continue by e-mail until early next week. At that time, if a majority of the voting faculty is in favor of passing the \nresolutions, they will be sent to the board of trustees.\nThe resolution asking for Herbert's review carries a list of alleged issues the president has handled poorly, including failing to find a candidate for IUB chancellor after a ten-month search and the absence of a full-time chancellor for more than two years.\nThe board of trustees unanimously passed a resolution in support of IU President Adam Herbert's decision to continue the chancellor search at their Nov. 4 meeting in Richmond, Ind.\nSix of nine trustees told the Indiana Daily Student they are undecided on whether they will vote for a special review of Herbert. They said they have not met to consider the resolutions, and will probably not do so until the next board of trustees meeting Dec. 8 and 9.\nTrustee William Cast said he would probably vote in favor of a review.\nTwo trustees, Cora Smith Breckenridge and Clarence Boone, were unavailable for comment by press time.\nA majority of trustees said they take the resolutions seriously, but are unsure about what action they might take.\n"When there are 600 members of the faculty saying something, we have to take it very seriously," board of trustees President Steve Ferguson said. Based on the televised comments he saw from faculty members after Tuesday's meeting, he said he believes the faculty had a strong statement.\n"We will give full and careful consideration to each recommendation," said trustee Casey Cox.\nCast added the board "would not ignore (the faculty), we would respond to the faculty."\nBut some trustees said reviewing the president is not high on their "to do" list.\n"We've got a limited amount of time, and reviewing the president is not highest priority. Getting a Bloomington chancellor is," said trustee Jeffrey Cohen, who added that the board reviews Herbert unofficially "every day."\nThe board of trustees looks at the job performance of the president on a yearly basis, but not in the same way the faculty is requesting. The faculty resolution asks for a comprehensive review with input from "all members of the Indiana University community and its external constituencies."\nBut the trustees said they don't believe the faculty is out of place in criticizing the president.\n"I understand that many professors have strong feelings," Cohen said. "All of the trustees share the concern that we need a chancellor in Bloomington soon."\n"We have a long tradition of shared governance," said trustee Pat Shoulders, who said he thinks the faculty was not out of bounds in their criticism of Herbert.\n-- Senior writer Mike Malik contributed to this report.