Faculty try new plan to unite search guidelines

Bloomington Faculty Council members voiced concern about new search committee guidelines for administrative positions after an unofficial draft was presented at the committee's meeting Tuesday.\nCurrently three separate search and screen procedures for administrative appointments exist: those for the University-wide, Bloomington campus and the Indianapolis campus. The University Faculty Council has taken the task of combining the three procedures to merge into one University-wide policy. A UFC subcommittee, on which BFC President Ted Miller will serve, was created specifically for the task. \n"This is something the trustees are very interested in," he said. "They want to move quickly on the issue, but have not given us a specific deadline."\nThe draft included sections dealing with the appointment of senior administrators without a search process, including emergency, exceptional and interim hires -- something many members felt needed refinement.\nMembers said they felt as though the sections pertaining to exceptional or emergency hires should be taken out completely or be moved to subcategories under the title of interim appointments.\nMany said they saw no need for an emergency appointment to become permanent, and said the language used did not distinguish between emergency and interim.\n"Emergency hires should also be considered interim," BFC member Robert Kravchuk said. "How permanent can an emergency be?" \nSome said they worried about "exceptional appointments" at the administrative level, feeling that ignoring a search process could damage leadership bonds between administrators and faculty members. Under appointment policies concerning faculty members, exceptional hires are allowed, but some said they felt there was an absolute distinction between the two policies.\n"The difference between exceptional faculty hires and those on the administrative level is that the administrator is appointed to lead the rest of us," BFC member Lisa Bingham said. "Administrators are the voice of the faculty." \nOthers said they saw the term "exceptional" to hold little meaning if that individual's appointment lacked a committee to back up that claim.\n"What's the meaning of exceptional? And who gets to make that decision?" BFC Member Maxine Watson said. "That's what disturbs me." \nAlthough no official changes were made to the proposed draft, Miller said that he would take the BFC's advice to the subcommittee in charge of the project and agreed that the current draft could look nothing like the final submission. \n"This is just something put together to start the process of consolidating the three separate policies," he said. "Obviously emergency hires are of great interest and controversy, and that will be taken into consideration"