SUNY Chancellor Search and Other Appointment News

After a year of searching, the committee seeking a new chancellor for the State University of New York has finally come up with a short list of contenders, The New York Times reports.

Although those involved in the search refused to reveal the names of the finalists or how many they number, some panelists confessed that it’s been tough to recruit top talent at a time when SUNY “is facing the biggest budget cuts in its history and trying to address the ‘grave concerns’ expressed by a high-level state commission this summer about the quality of many of its schools,” the Times reports. It said those financial woes had led some leading candidates to withdraw their names.

According to education and state officials, the short list was turned over to New York Gov. David A. Paterson, who will meet the candidates over the next two weeks before picking one.

Meanwhile faculty members at Baylor University fear they’ll be denied a say in the selection of a new president after the chairman of the university’s governing board, Howard Batson, issued a statement rebuffing a faculty senate request for wider representation on the presidential hiring committee, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports.

The newspaper quotes from Batson’s statement: “The responsibility of selecting a president, however, and the method by which a president is selected belongs to the board. Even SACS [accrediting agency Southern Association of Colleges and Schools] makes clear that the selection of the president properly resides with the Board.”

The newspaper quotes faculty senate chair Georgia Green as saying that while “[Batson] is absolutely right that the board of regents is the only body that can select a president,” faculty members merely seek a say in the hiring process, not in the final decision.

And in other appointment news, the University of Rhode Island kicked off a search for a new president, after Robert L. Carothers, who has held the post since 1991, announced that he will retire next June, the Providence Journal reports.

The University of the Arts has picked Michael Nash as its next provost, according to MarketWatch. Mr. Nash, who served as dean and chief academic officer of the Boston Conservatory for nearly a decade, took his new office on Monday.