Faculty members take issue with ongoing search committees for deans in letters to the principal.
Individuals from two faculties, including the Smith School of Business and the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), have written letters to Principal Patrick Deane raising issues with the composition, specifically in relation to faculty representation, of their respective dean search committees.
In a June 16 letter, over 50 professors from across the Faculty of Arts and Science criticized the advisory committees composition to find their next Dean, noting only one member of the 16-person committee is a non-administrative faculty member. This means faculty without administrative titles make up 6.5 per cent of the committee. Professors wrote that even counting department heads, faculty outside the administration comprise less than 20 per cent of the committee.
Faculty members argued the committee’s makeup violates the spirit of the University’s Senate policies, which highlight the “normal desirability” of having a majority of the committee drawn from the faculty concerned.
In an interview with The Journal, Margaret Pappano—an English professor who signed the letter and assisted in its writing—explained this wasn’t the first time faculty have taken issue with the dean search. She explained that while Senate has created a committee to establish a new dean selection process, the proposed changes were sent back twice for not addressing their concerns.
“Senate is a sluggish, non-reactive body. It’s more likely to pass things than not, but it didn’t pass this twice, and that’s really significant because the problem with the lack of faculty representation wasn’t adequately addressed,” Pappano said.
Pappano later stressed why she feels faculty representation is important on the committee.
“Somebody who has spent a lot of time in administration can lose touch, I think, with the academic prerogative and can begin to focus solely on financial and sometimes on governance structures themselves that are disconnected from, you know, academics,” Pappano said.
Instead of an appointment from the principal, Pappano suggests using the FAS Board as a way of appointing committee members.
“We have a functioning body, so why not use that? Faculty members attend, they vote, they’re certainly capable of putting forward names and voting on these names to be on this search committee,” Pappano said.
In a statement to The Journal, the University touched on the fact that the changes to policy weren’t approved and explained they will follow the existing policy until it’s changed.
“Any changes to the policy must be initiated and supported by the Senate […] In the meantime, the University remains obligated to follow the procedures outlined in the policy and is doing so in the searches for Smith School of Business and the FAS,” the University wrote.
Similarly, in a May 21 letter to Principal Deane, 50 professors at the Smith School of Business wrote to discuss faculty representation on their Dean search committee. They called for a majority of committee members to be faculty from their school—pointing out that at comparable Ontario universities, including at Western, York, the University of Toronto, and Waterloo, faculty representation typically ranges from 50 per cent to 73 per cent, compared to the 27 per cent on their current committee.
While the committees for both Arts and Science and Business School are assembled and announced in the Queen’s Gazette, it’s unclear if the letter will lead to changes in either of their compositions.
Tags
ArtSci, Dean search, Smith Business
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