Please Note: MSU MEMO is archived as a part of Mississippi State University's history. Articles may refer to situations which have changed or people who are no longer affiliated with the university.
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March 18, 2002 Volume 26, Issue 29 |
"The Robert Holland Faculty Senate disagrees with the [College] Board Search Committee's decision not to allow MSU faculty to elect its representatives to the Campus (Presidential Search) Advisory Committee.
"The Robert Holland Faculty Senate will elect a committee of its members to study the presidential search process within the state and elsewhere, and will present its findings and recommendations to the senate and the IHL (Institutions of Higher Learning) Board."
After nearly 90 minutes of deliberative, though sometimes blurring, discussions during a March 1 special meeting, Mississippi State's faculty senate voted 30-6 in favor of this two-paragraph substitute resolution.
Composed by Sen. Clyde Williams of English from verbal rough drafts suggested by colleagues Doug Marshall of Food Science and Technology and Tom Cathcart of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, among others, the approved statement was chosen over the original proposal by senate vice chair Walter Diehl of Biological Sciences.
Had it been approved as submitted, the Diehl resolution would have read: "The IHL Board Presidential Search Committee having refused to permit the MSU faculty to elect its own representatives to the campus Advisory Committee, the Robert Holland Faculty Senate regretfully calls on the faculty to politely decline to serve on that committee by appointment."
The extraordinary senate session was called Feb 22 via an e-mail sent to senators and all other faculty members by senate chair Dan Embree, also of English.
"At (the Feb. 15) faculty senate meeting," Embree said in his campus-wide mailing, "a proposed resolution calling for elected faculty representatives for the Presidential Search Advisory Committee was withdrawn in view of IHL board member Carl Nicholson's assurance that he would attempt to convince the Search Committee to accept election as the mechanism for choosing faculty representatives and his suggestion that I forward to him a plan for such elections." [see Feb. 25 Memo]
Though the plan dutifully was submitted to Nicholson, Embree went on to explain that, "At the IHL Board meeting yesterday (the 21st), the committee decided against directing Advisory Committee Chair and Dean (of MSU Libraries) Frances Coleman to use an elective process. Instead, all positions . . . will be filled by appointment . . . ."
Throughout the special senate session, which was covered in unprecedented fashion by reporters from most all Golden Triangle-area news media, many senators seemed in general agreement with Diehl and Embree's unhappiness over the lack of elected representation on the advisory body.
Still, many of those expressing opinions seemed hesitant to embrace the latter portion of Diehl's proposal calling for faculty "to politely decline to serve on that committee."
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