Chair Talk 3.4

Presidential Search – Definitely Read This One

This message is meant to bring faculty up-to-date on the Presidential search process.  I met recently with the Chair of the Presidential Search Committee (Regent Ridenour) and was impressed both by his commitment to this task, and his desire to make certain we get the best President we can.  There will be faculty representation on the Search Committee – exactly what will be determined shortly. 

Regent Ridenour asked for our input, to help the committee define its search ‘image’.  In a nutshell, we have been asked to provide answers to two queries: first, what is it that makes the UA special, its DNA so to speak, that defines it and allows it to stand out.  Second, and clearly related to the first, what characteristics would we most value in our next President?

We’ve struggled with how to assemble this kind of information in a way that accurately reflects what the faculty feel.  Partly that’s because the faculty don’t feel anything in a singular fashion.  All of you have your own feelings about each of these issues – and those feelings are not just one-word or even one sentence long.

What we decided to do is the following:  create two lists of possible answers to these questions (words or short phrases), and send it out to all faculty – encouraging each of you to express your own views.  We will report ‘the wisdom of the crowd’ to the Search committee.  They will see what the faculty, collectively, feel about the UA and its next President.

Obviously this works well only if we get a decent return rate.  I know you mostly ignore my messages, hey I’ve got 5 kids and 5 grandkids, I can handle being ignored most of the time.  But every once in a while it is really important – and this is one of those moments.  Participation by a large proportion of the faculty will make a strong statement that I believe can influence the course of the Presidential search.  

So, I’m asking, no actually I’m imploring, each and every one of you, faculty members of all kinds, take the time right now, to express your views – you can do that by logging in to the following short Qualtrics survey:

https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3KmoAWrByh4GsKh

There will be clear instructions on how to fill out the survey – please do it now!

Lynn Nadel
Chair of the Faculty