CSUF Faculty Wants More Say

The Cal State Fullerton faculty senate has threatened to pull three faculty members off of a committee searching for a replacement for retiring President Jewel Plummer Cobb if they are not given a greater role in screening candidates.

The 45-member Cal State Fullerton Academic Senate voted last week to give Chancellor Ann Reynolds until Monday to respond to its requests, including one that senate members be allowed to participate in background checks of semifinalists.

If Reynolds fails to give them a “positive response” by that date, Carol Barnes, Harris Shultz and John W. Bedell will be recalled from the search committee, according to last week’s senate resolution. Two similar resolutions, passed unanimously in November and February, were sent to Reynolds but went unanswered.

Without faculty participation, the selection process will lack credibility, said George Watson, a psychology professor and member of the Fullerton and California State University academic senates, and the new president may have trouble winning the support of faculty.

“It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of faculty support to get things done on campus,” Watson said.

“We’re not asking to control the process--we’re asking to be able to solicit and provide information,” he said.

Cobb, 66, announced in October that she would retire on July 31 after eight years as president of the 25,000-student Fullerton campus.

The 13-member search committee is to recommend a candidate to the CSU Board of Trustees before its May meeting. The board will have final say in the selection.

The committee, now just starting to winnow through about 80 applications for the post, is made up of three faculty members, a student, an alumnus, a campus advisory board member, four trustees, Reynolds and Cal State Fresno President Harold H. Haak. Only the trustee members and Reynolds vote on the recommendation to the board.

At the center of the dispute is the refusal by trustee members to allow faculty members to help conduct background searches once the applicant pool is narrowed to 10 semifinalists.

Caesar Naples, CSU’s vice chancellor for faculty and staff affairs, conducts the checks, which include visiting campuses and interviewing the candidates and their colleagues.

Bedell, a sociology professor and president of the Academic Senate, said that faculty members would add a different perspective to the checks and can “utilize our network of contacts around the country.”

Naples said faculty members can suggest questions to ask when he conducts his background checks.

“Any issues that they raise I will check out,” he said.

Naples said that a Board of Trustees policy gives his office the duty of conducting the checks “in the interest of confidentiality.” He said the policy was passed to avoid confusion and to prevent unauthorized background searches.

Confining background checks to his office, he said, guarantees that the candidates “are not deluged with inquiries from many committee members.”

“The process has worked in the past,” Naples said. “I think you’ll find that faculty members of past search committees were reasonably satisfied with the selection process.”

But Bedell said faculty committee members also could assure confidentiality.

“We want to do it above board,” Bedell said. “We’re not interested in rumor mongering.”

If faculty members pulled out of the committee, some Academic Senate members say it would be a devastating blow to the search because some candidates might charge that the search process was unfair and withdraw their applications.

Faculty members also asked Reynolds that their faculty members also be allowed to voice their opinions before the entire committee after the five finalists visit the campus.

“That way you get the campus viewpoint, get the campus reaction and you discuss it,” Watson said.

But Naples said faculty committee members have been allowed to submit written assessments of each of the candidates after the forums.

Jim Simon, president of Associated Students and a member of the search committee, said the student government also is concerned about the selection process and lack of student input.

“(Naples) has been doing this time and time again. . . . We feel that we can offer a perspective that person can’t have.

“We really need to know more than their title and what’s on their application.”