On Process
Paul Fanlund's column today on the process through which Rebecca Blank was selected as chancellor raises some very important questions. These strike me as the sorts of questions that one should ask regardless of whether or not they agree with the choice of Blank. After all, these process issues go to the heart of how we select a chancellor at a shared governance institution. 1. How are we to know whom the campus "unanimously" supports? The current practice is that the process of official input from shared governance bodies ends when the search and screen committee names its four finalists. When that committee meets with the Regents special committee, it is to provide input on what people on campus said about all of the candidates. At no point in the Blank search did the search and screen committee have the opportunity to tell the Regent committee whom the campus "unanimously" chose. Moreover, the search and screen committee did not have a clear selection of...