Friday’s special session of Mississippi State University’s Robert Holland Faculty Senate passed a resolution expressing concerns about the selection process of MSU’s advisory board members. MSU’s advisory board assists the six-member committee of the Institutions for Higher Learning that is in charge of narrowing the list and selecting MSU’s next president. The vote of 30 for the resolution to 6 against came after long discussion and debate over a proposed resolution by the Senate’s Vice Chairman Walter Diehl.
Deihl’s first proposed resolution was not passed, but the revised version saying, “The Robert Holland Faculty Senate disagrees with the Board Search Committee’s decision not to allow MSU faculty to elect its representatives to the Campus 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 IHL Board,” was passed and e-mailed to MSU’s faculty Friday.
“It’s appropriate that the Faculty Senate stand for the principle of elected representation,” Diehl said.
“This is a no-win situation,” Richard Still, Faculty Senate member, said. “It seems like we’re all at an ego game here. I’m afraid there’s too many personalities and egos, maybe on both sides.”
Still said that strong personalities on the IHL Board and Faculty Senate are probable causes of the situation and reasons the situation will only result in a lose-lose situation.
“I do not see how IHL does not see elected (representation) as the right way,” Still said.
Still said that the problem the Faculty Senate is experiencing now is not a new problem. He said that he is worried about what the future may bring over the debate of governance between the Senate and IHL.
“I think what concerns me is the principle,” Mark Goodman, Faculty Senate member, said.
Although there was long debate over the wording of the resolution, all senators who took the floor agreed that the six-member IHL committee in charge of selecting MSU’s next president needs to review the spirit of university governance, a guideline set by faculty, administration and students in 1996 stating how the university should be self-governed.
The guideline does not specifically state how presidential searches are to be conducted, but the section devoted to selecting administration states that the selection board should be at least a majority of elected representation-a method that the Faculty Senate said is the right way in the selection process of MSU’s advisory board.
Senate Chair Dan Embree said the Senate’s original proposal to elect members on the advisory board requested that 18 members be elected and six be appointed by Frances Coleman, chairperson for MSU’s advisory board to the IHL.
Embree said that proposal was sent to Nicholson after he spoke to the Senate during the Feb. 15 meeting.
“We (IHL) will do everything possible to make you (Senate) happy in this search,” Nicholson said in the meeting.
Nicholson also told the Senate that he could not make any promises.
A Feb. 21 closed-session of the six-member IHL resulted in a letter thanking Embree and the Senate while declining their request.