Trustees to meet with faculty groups

IU President Adam Herbert will face a new kind of scrutiny today when the IU board of trustees meets with several faculty groups. The board will listen to complaints and allegations about Herbert's performance as president, and get input from the groups about a faculty resolution asking for a special midterm review of Herbert.\n"At this point we'll hear from various groups, and based upon what we hear, we may take (the resolution) under advisement," said board of trustees President Stephen Ferguson.\nThe trustees are also expected to discuss and review two resolutions Friday from the Bloomington faculty. One asks for the review of Herbert, and the second asks for Bloomington considerations to be paramount in the selection of a new Bloomington chancellor and University-wide senior vice president for academic affairs.\nThe board will hold closed-door meetings with University Faculty Council members, Bloomington Faculty Council members, Black Faculty and Staff Council members and the Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors today.\n"It's an opportunity for the faculty to have access to the board," Ferguson said.\nMembers of the BFC discussed the lack of a chancellor at their meeting Tuesday. Some professors voiced their hopes for a quick decision about a review of Herbert. Others said they hope to have a new IU-Bloomington chancellor soon, and asked whether it is possible for the board of trustees to select and approve a new IUB chancellor without going through the usual search process.\n"The trustees could do that, but it would be very unusual," said interim IUB Chancellor Ken Gros Louis at the meeting.\nThe board of trustees selected and approved IUB President John Ryan without a search and screen process in 1971.\n"The trustees felt that there was something of a crisis (in 1971)," Gros Louis said. "I'm not sure the trustees feel there is a crisis at this time."\nMembers of the Bloomington faculty organized after Herbert decided to continue the chancellor search Oct. 31. Their criticisms included Herbert's delayed appointment of a chancellor search committee and his "profound lack of visibility" in public situations.\nFaculty members were also angry at the length of time IUB has been without a permanent chancellor. IUB has not had one since Sharon Brehm stepped down in 2003.