CONWAY- Faculty members at the University of Central Arkansas hope a recently approved resolution will provide for more open presidential searches than in the past.
Earlier this month, the faculty senate sent that resolution establishing a presidential search advisory committee to President Tom Courtway’s office and asked that the measure be forwarded to the board of trustees.
The measure was one goal that Kevin Browne, the faculty senate’s outgoing president, had said he hoped to achieve at the start of the academic year. The university was still healing from contention that had marred not only the twoyear tenure of former President Allen Meadors but also his selection as UCA’s chief executive in 2009.
Browne was determined to do what he could to avoid a similar situation.
“We [need] to prevent what happened last time when the search process was compromised and subverted, [and] a president was selected in defiance of the collective wisdom with the disastrous result with which we are all familiar,” Browne said. “I believe that the current board agrees that the process needs to be entirely transparent.”
Browne said university officials also had promised the Higher Learning Commission -an accreditation institution - that the school would address the need for more transparency.
Under the resolution, a search advisory committee would consist of two faculty members, two staff representatives, two students, one trustee, one senior administrator, one community member, one alumnus and one UCA Foundation representative. There also would be a nonvoting committee chairman and a nonvoting campus liaison.
“By putting a board [of trustees] member on the search committee, it gives the board more of a stake in the recommendations of the committee,” Browne said.
This committee would screen and evaluate all presidential applicants and ultimately submit a list of at least four unranked finalists to the board. The committee could submit fewer names if it believed fewer applicants were qualified.
The board then would combine its own list of finalists, which could include “any other persons the Board deems worthy of consideration for the appointment as President,” the resolution says. If the board opted to consider a candidate the committee had not reviewed, that person’s name and qualifications would be forwarded to the committee “for its approval and views prior to the interview by the Board ofTrustees.”
If the process failed to produce a president, the resolution says, the committee would reconvene to consider “new applications or candidates from the original pool” and again make recommendations.
By giving faculty, staff and students majority representation on the committee and by increasing the panel’s involvement, especially near the end of the process, the faculty senate aims to avoid future problems.
In June 2009, the board voted 5-2 to hire Meadors, with Trustees Kay Hinkle and Bobby Reynolds voting no.
Hinkle said at the time that she wished there had been an expanded search and previously said she did not believe the applicants were treated equally. She said she understood that the search committee had given Meadors a deadline to submit his application materials and that he was several days late doing so.
In May 2009, another finalist for the job withdrew his application, complained the search process was “flawed” and cited the late inclusion of Meadors as a finalist.
When Courtway, UCA’s former general counsel, took the president’s job in December 2011, he and the board agreed he would stay in it for up to three years.
Browne stressed that the resolution “should not be interpreted as us saying, ‘Let’s start a search for a new president.’”
“The timing on the initiation of a new search is completely beyond our charge and authority,” he said.
The board’s makeup has changed since 2009, Browne noted. “I believe that the current board agrees that the process needs to be entirely transparent,” he said.
Board Chairman Victor Green said Friday that he and Browne had discussed the proposed resolution.
“When the board decides that it’s time to start that search, I’m 100 percent confident it will be a true, transparent and open process,” Green said.
“I do believe 100 percent it is ultimately the board’s decision to hire the president,”Green added. “But I also believe that everyone should be on the same playing field, and whatever process is established, then that is the process” that should be followed.
On whether he thought the board is likely to ask Courtway to remain as president beyond Courtway’s self-imposed three-year limit, Green said, “I can’t speak for the board. Tom has done a phenomenal job. His credibility with the faculty, staff and students has really carried us through … troubled waters.”
Courtway does not have a contract at his own request.
Green said he wasn’t aware of anyone trying to start a search committee at this time.
“I do believe at some point in the future that’s something that has to happen,” Green added. Asked if he thought there should be a search process even if the board wants to keep Courtway on the job, Green said, “Yes, I think there should be a process. … an open, transparent process for the president’s position.”
But he said, “That would occur only when the board says that it’s time to move forward.”
In March, Courtway would not rule out the possibility that he might stay longer than three years if the board asked him to do so.
“The search for a new president is not my decision. It will be up to the board,” he said. “I will visit with the board at the appropriate time if they want to talk to me about it.”
The resolution is not on the agenda for the board’s Friday meeting. The measure was approved April 9, and the deadline for that meeting’s agenda was April 5. Green said he believes the board will consider the proposal at a future meeting.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/27/2013