CSUF Faculty to Study Offer on Leader Search : Education: Cal State’s Academic Senate had threatened to pull its members from the presidential search committee because of being denied a major role in screening candidates.

California State University trustees offered a last-minute compromise Thursday that persuaded the Cal State Fullerton Academic Senate to reconsider its threat to pull faculty members from a presidential search committee unless they were given a greater role in screening candidates.

In a surprise visit to the 45-member senate, Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds, trustee and search committee chairman William D. Campbell and CSU Vice Chancellor Caesar Naples offered to give faculty members on the committee complete access to the results of background checks and guaranteed them the opportunity to request additional checks.

The Academic Senate met Thursday to vote on the issue but postponed it until Tuesday after Reynolds and the others made their offer.

“We would receive all the background checks together as a group,” Campbell told the senate. But he stopped short of meeting a request from faculty members that they be allowed to help conduct background checks.

Earlier this month, the Academic senate passed a resolution to recall its three committee members if Reynolds failed to give a “positive response” to its demand to participate in background checks.

Currently, faculty members are allowed to participate in discussions when the field of applicants is narrowed down to three or four finalists. Only the five trustee members on the committee have a vote, and they present their recommendations to the entire Board of Trustees, which has the final say.

Reynolds responded on Monday to the faculty members’ resolution, saying that it was unlikely that the Board of Trustees would change its policy and allow them to participate in the checks because “the existing process has worked well.”

Acting on her response, the senate’s executive committee recommended on Wednesday that the full body go ahead and recall the members, an action that some faculty members said would undermine efforts to find a replacement for retiring President Jewel Plummer Cobb.

Although the offer falls short of the senate’s original resolution, some faculty members were happy that they had at least won a compromise.

“It’s a movement,” John J. Bedell, chairman of the Academic Senate and a member of the selection committee, said after the meeting. “It’s not what the faculty wants, but it’s a movement.”

Elementary education professor Carol Barnes, another member of the search committee, told the senate that perhaps the latest offer “is the wiggle room we are looking for.”

Many members of the senate were cautious about the offer, and they successfully argued that they should study it over the next few days.

The senate also had sought a say in the final recommendation of a candidate before the selection is submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval. Campbell said they would be allowed to submit their comments after the three or four finalists visit the campus in May.

Meanwhile, Fullerton Mayor A. B. (Buck) Catlin met with several CSU trustees to argue for some city role in the selection process, saying that the city has an interest in the new president, given the number of joint projects it has with the university.

Tom McQueeney contributed to this story.