YSU faculty union criticizes lack of transparency in board’s presidential search
The Youngstown State University Board of Trustees announced they picked a candidate for the newest president of the university.
The trustees’ selection committee publicly offered the job to U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson.
The YSU union representing full time faculty announced they were “disappointed” by the decision, according to the YSU-OEA president Mark Vopat.
The board made the decision in executive session meetings behind closed doors.
“Faculty, staff, students, and community members were not part of the selection and interview process,” said Vopat. “We are disappointed that the YSU Board of Trustees would offer the presidency to anyone without first vetting the candidate through meetings with stakeholders.”
The board also authorized for negotiations to begin with Rep. Johnson.
According to Vopat and YSU-OEA, there’s typically a transparent approach to hiring in higher education which includes campus visits and open forums with candidates before the decision is finalized.
There is usually more solicitation of feedback from the university community and stakeholders before making a hiring decision, according to the union’s statement.
“What happened here... shortchanges faculty, staff, students and members of the Youngstown community who deserve the opportunity to meet and ask questions of our prospective leaders, particularly leaders of public institutions,” Vopat said. “This undermines a lot of the progress we’ve made.”
Rep. Johnson said he “wasn’t looking for another job,” but is currently considering the university’s offer.
“If I determine this opportunity to lead YSU is a good fit, I’ll have a very difficult decision to make. In the meantime, my focus will remain on representing Eastern Ohio in the U.S. House,” wrote Johnson
YSU spokesperson Rebecca Rose said Witt Kieffer was chosen by the school as the search firm to assist in the recruitment of candidates and Johnson was interviewed in the process.
“Back to square one”
Vopat said they’d seen progress with faculty-administration relations under the leadership of Helen Lafferty, who became the interim president of the university earlier this year.
“We saw the benefit of transparency and including people in decision making under Lafferty’s leadership,” Vopat said. “We saw the outcomes of that with contract negotiations this summer, when we agreed to a new contract before the fall semester. This year was a complete turn-around following years of protracted and contentious negotiations. And now we’re back to square one.”
According to Vopat, Lafferty was appointed for 18 months, but the board ended her tenure early.
“Ending her tenure early and rushing through the selection process is entirely unnecessary. We encourage the board to reconsider their unilateral decision to extend an offer without community input, resume the search, and fully vet the candidates by introducing them to community members before making a hiring decision,” Vopat said.
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