Student Affairs appointment spurs questions about process

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

hough the appointment of Javier Cevallos as the new vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life was generally applauded at the Oct. 19 Faculty Senate meeting, some senators raised questions about the hiring process.

     "Without any doubt about [Cevallos'] qualifications for the office, I was wondering about the procedure," said Rules Committee chair Roland Chilton during the question period, "and I may just have fallen behind in keeping track of the procedures for appointing major administrative officers, and it certainly makes sense that you would...appoint a major administrative officer as an acting position without a search, but is it now the case that we make appointments to those positions without a search at all?"

     "No," Chancellor David Scott replied. "That's not the normal procedure.

     "Occasionally, and certainly it's something I use very, very rarely, there is a special opportunity that comes before you that is an extraordinary opportunity that you can take advantage of in a narrow window of time, so I did not do a search.

     "The times where I have used appointments without searches for such high-level positions have always been where I believe I also advance the diversity of the administration... Javier Cevallos is in fact the only member of my administration who is an Hispanic American.

     "I believe that it is important symbolically to have Hispanic Americans and diversity in my administration, so he is symbolically important. He is structurally important for what he has done already, and he is substantively important because of the ideas he has demonstrated in the past in this job and in other jobs. So for all of these reasons, I waived the procedures. I've only done that on one other occasion during my eight-year tenure as the chancellor."

     Scott also said that had Cevallos gone to another institution, another year would have passed before a permanent vice chancellor could be searched for and put in place. That period under a different interim, plus the adjustment period for the new permanent hire would have "put us on hold...for a while" in Student Affairs.

     "The chancellor has made the statement many times, and I agree with it, that reasonable people can respectfully disagree," said History professor Jack Tager, who chairs the Program and Budget Council. "I disagree.

     "Two points, and they...come under what I consider to be lack of collegiality. While Javier, I think, is superb (I think he's great), I think you did the wrong thing by not following procedure."

     Tager also said he was distressed by a Daily Hampshire Gazette story in which the chancellor was reported to have said that people on campus wanted the reallocation pool monies taken from Academic Affairs put into Research.

     "I don't know who these people are that you refer to in this newspaper. I respectfully disagree. You made a decision which you believe in and you have the right to make this decision, but I think you should have spoken to other people in a collegial manner about how this should be done.

     "I don't think that we had other people involved. My committee, the Program and Budget Council, was not involved in this decision. As far as I know, the senate was not involved in this decision.

     "I'm not suggesting that you don't have the right to do this or that it's even a bad decision because maybe it's the right decision. It's the process that I take issue with. I think that collegiality means that we need to communicate and consult, and here are two instances in which I don't think you've done that."

     "One should not ride roughshod over process," Scott said. In the case of appointing Cevallos, Scott said he only had a few days to consult and that he did consult "with a number of groups." He also said that his decisions about budgetary issues are "the result of a very long, complicated process about ideas and priorities that are fed up the line from the vice chancellors. ... In the Provost's case, they are working with all of the deans, the chairpersons, and the heads, and the other vice chancellors and deputy chancellors are working with others.

     "There is a process in the senate for consultation on budget and priorities. I can't tell you what kind of consultations went on there, but we do have liaisons to that process. I sift through all of that and try and cull the right set of decisions to advance the entire institution."