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After Janet Napolitano’s hiring, UC system’s secret process criticized

Janet Napolitano speaks during a farewell ceremony Sept. 6 in Washington, D.C.
(Shawn Thew / EPA)
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The surprise selection of former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to head the UC system has fueled criticism over the secret selection process.

Supporters of a more open method say that better decisions are made when three or four finalists for a university presidency or chancellorship are formally identified to the public. At that point, faculty and students could have a chance to meet them before a final selection.

Though widely praised, the selection of Napolitano in July also came as a shock to many outside a relatively small circle of UC regents and other officials.

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“We want to see a transparent UC, where the people who are paid out of student tuition money are accountable,” Caroline McKusick, a leader of UAW 2865, which represents teaching assistants and other student employees in UC, told The Times.

McKusick said that complaints about how Napolitano’s federal agency handled deportations of immigrants who crossed the border illegally should have been publicly aired before she was named as the sole nominee.

However, UC regents, Cal State trustees and some experts in academic hiring insist that the best candidates — and certainly someone like Napolitano, who had a sensitive job — would be scared away if the searches are fully transparent. They say that state laws and university rules allow closed-door discussions of such hirings with good reason. And they insist that search committees include student, alumni and faculty representatives for a wide range of views.

UC and Cal State systems usually do not name more than one finalist and do not divulge the closed-door discussions that led to the nomination. Additionally, the final votes by the UC regents and Cal State trustees provide little information about the searches.

Before a policy change in 2011, Cal State traditionally disclosed the names of three or so finalists for campus presidencies and held public visits, according to spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp. But after seeing good candidates drop out early, Cal State decided to leave disclosure to the discretion of the system chancellor and the trustee who heads the search.

Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, said her experience as a university executive in North Carolina, Arizona and in Cal State convinced her that confidentiality attracts the best leaders.

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She said she has “a deep and abiding commitment to the 1st Amendment” but open searches have “a chilling effect” and often lead to the hiring of less experienced candidates than a more confidential process. Napolitano probably would not have come to UC if she had been publicly identified as one of several candidates, Broad said: “Look at the job she was in. What if the nation was in some kind of Homeland Security crisis?”

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larry.gordon@latimes.com

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Twitter: @larrygordonLAT

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