WVU’s Faculty Senate heard and update on the presidential search on Monday, and Senate chair Diana Davis tied the importance of the search to the current turmoil caused by National Institutes of Health funding cuts and the closing of the DEI Division.
“All of this change reinforces the necessity of strong leadership of the institution moving forward, to navigate change and to keep the university strong,” she said.
Professor Scott Lane chairs the Senate’s Shared Governance Committee and told his colleagues that the committee submitted questions to the presidential Search Committee for the finalists to answer.
Search Committee chair Patrice Harris reminded the senators that the Board of Governors has selected finalists and said the BOG will interview the finalists in person over the next couple of weeks.
The Search Committee, she said, has categorized the Shared Governance Committee’s submissions into two buckets of questions and will ask the finalists to respond to them in writing. The Search Committee’s Executive Committee will then review the answers – with the finalists’ names removed from the responses.
The questions they will answer, Harris said, will cover their definition of shared governance, along with their philosophy of shared governance and the role of faculty in that sharing.
The finalists will also answer questions on the role of faculty in promotion and tenure, and curriculum development.
Harris took a question of the number of finalists to be interviewed and their experience in higher education administration.
She answered, “We are not at liberty to disclose those specifics at this point.”
