October 11, 2001-Vol33n6: Letters

VOLUME 33, NUMBER 6

THURSDAY, October 11, 2001

UB should confirm with SUNY on appointments

To the Editor:
The Reporter of Sept 13 included an article about the Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting held on Sept.5. The summary of President Greiner's discussion of the "appointment and dismissal" process for departmental chairs provided an accurate account of his verbal statements on the issue. He stated that the university was "guided by SUNY policy." This phrasing may sound satisfactory, but I suggest that this university should actually conform to the printed SUNY policies for both administrative and departmental appointments.

At that meeting, Professor John Boot stated that it was important to know what the rules are. Our campus community needs to be informed about long-standing parts of the SUNY policies that have perhaps actually been ignored or contradicted on this campus.

The State University of New York Policies of the Board of Trustees. 2001 includes these clear statements that have been on the books for a long time. Article IX, Title B, College Administrative Officers, Section #2 reads as follows: Appointments of all college administrative officers and professional staff not in a negotiating unit established pursuant to Article 14 of the Civil Service Law shall be made by the chief administrative officer of the college; such appointments shall be reported to the chancellor. Appointments such as vice-president for academic affairs, academic deans and others with similar responsibilities shall be made after consultation with the faculty.

This phrasing brings up the complex issue of what constitutes necessary or appropriate consultation with the faculty. This university has made, in my opinion, some appointments with exemplary faculty consultation. For example, when there was an appointment to be made for the dean of the new combined College of Arts and Sciences, the university had at least three appropriate candidates appear publicly on campus, speak at well-publicized meetings, answer questions and have their vitas distributed. Faculty judgments were solicited.

Of course, this process helped to create some legitimacy for the person who had to administer the new unit. In my opinion, "consultation with the faculty" does not mean either no faculty consultation, mere gossip, nor only a post-appointment, pre-press release, early notification.

Faculty Senate members could learn which decanal and similar administrative appointments during the past three or four years have had the levels of faculty consultation legitimately required by SUNY policy. The make-up of search committees may become an issue. Perhaps outside appointees coming to campus have not been fully informed about these SUNY policies, and thus have been mistakenly socialized to one restrictive way of doing what should be an official consultative process.

Acting appointments also should have a similar procedure. The Board of Trustees' Policy Article IX, Title B, Section #3 reads: Acting Appointments. Interim appointments on an acting basis of college administrative officers and professional staff not in a negotiating unit established pursuant to Article 14 of the Civil Service Law, other than chief administrative officer, shall be made in accordance with Section 2 above. Late in President Ketter's term, the issue of over-reliance on non-consultative appointments to acting or interim positions was one factor discussed in the series of meetings that led ultimately to the orderly transition to President Sample's appointment.

The Board of Trustees' Policy Article IX, Title B, Section #4 states: Service. Persons appointed pursuant to this Title shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing officer or body. Significantly, an appointment of this type can be ended by the appointing officer, but the chair of a department can be dismissed only by the chief administrative officer. Because we are an institution with educational/intellectual purposes, the policies for administrators and for departmental chairs are somewhat different. Unlike in Title B, the chief administrative officer's power to remove a chair from that departmental office (Title C #3) cannot be delegated.

The Faculty Senate may be a resource for learning which non-departmental administrative appointments have been made with appropriate faculty consultation and which, if any, were not. In the future, despite the obviously more complex processes required, all the SUNY policies about "faculty consultation" should be honored.

I hope that reason can prevail, and that professionalism would dictate that, as a step toward a minimum, every professor's vita become available to the public, whether the professor serves the university as a teacher, researcher or administrator.

Vic Doyno
Professor of English