The Robert Holland Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday urging the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board Search Committee to dissolve the current Mississippi State University presidential search.
The resolution passed 32-4 after a two-day electronic vote. Faculty Senate President David Nagel said the declaration will be faxed to the IHL.
In a Wednesday e-mail to MSU faculty, Nagel said the electronic vote allowed faculty members to determine whether the Faculty Senate should urge the IHL to restart the presidential search.
“Last week we passed and delivered a resolution to the IHL Board [of Trustees] urging them to open the current search by bringing all finalist to campus,” he said in an e-mail. “The question now concerns urging the IHL Board [Search Committee] to dissolve the current search and start a new one.”
Nagel said the current situation involving all of the rumors, conspiracies and allegations associated with the presidential search should not interrupt the faculty’s educational mission.
“Our current situation is like a patient with a kidney stone,” he said in the e-mail. “It is very painful at the moment, but when the causal agent is removed, the system returns to normal. This too shall pass.”
The results of the e-ballot will be delivered to the IHL Board of Trustees during its regularly scheduled meeting today in Jackson.
Many MSU faculty members said they think the IHL’s presidential search process has already failed.
An MSU faculty member who asked not to be identified said he believes the IHL has sabotaged MSU with the way the presidential search has been handled.
“I think what’s happening is the IHL is having a pissing contest over who should be the next president,” the faculty member said. “We’re the fire hydrant; we’re getting the golden shower.”
The faculty member said one reason the presidential search has failed is due to the IHL naming Vance Watson as the interim president after Robert “Doc” Foglesong’s resignation in March.
“The problem wasn’t with Vance wanting the job, but with the IHL naming him as the interim,” the source said. “This made it look like [the IHL] was giving him the inside track to the job.”
The faculty member said he felt the perceived inside track caused fewer applications to be entered for the presidential position.
“People were thinking that he had the job sewn up; why would anyone put their name in the hat?” the faculty member said. “If [the IHL] would have appointed Roy Ruby as interim, Vance could have lobbied all he wanted without appearing to have the inside track. Having a candidate in there as interim gave the appearance that the decision had been made.”