Allen Mooneyhan
Educational
Policy and the Law
Personal
Reflections
Set
#1
Dr.
George Foldesy
Arkansas
State University
June
13, 2001
When discussing contracts in
class, I began to reflect on my institution and the practices and procedures for
hiring individuals new to the campus. A
committee is formed which consists of several individuals from various areas and
academic divisions of the campus. These
individuals screen the applicants and choose several to come in for an
interview. The interviews are
scheduled and candidates are asked to come to the campus, sit through an
interview, and teach a sample unit on a pre-selected topic.
Finally, each interviewee visits with the director of the campus in a
one-on-one interview.
Once the interviews have been
completed, the committee members meet and determine who they will recommend to
the campus director. The director
then recommends that individual to the chancellor.
However, the director has interviewed each candidate independently.
Therefore, It is possible that he may recommend someone other than the
one who is chosen by the committee. Once
the recommendation is made to the chancellor, he has the option of hiring that
person or hiring someone else. Therefore,
he may disregard the wishes of the director and the committee members hiring
another individual instead. In
order to be official, the board must accept the decision of the chancellor. However, at this institution, the recommendations have
usually been accepted even in the face of political pressure.
Recently, there was a case
which almost resulted in the scenario in which the committee's decision was
disregarded in favor of the decision of an individual administrator.
The committee voted to hire someone to teach, and the director
recommended that individual to the chancellor.
At that point, the individual who had been chosen by the committee was
told that he had been chosen and would be hired upon acceptance of the
recommendation by the chancellor. The
administration was then notified by the chancellor that someone else would be
hired for the position. Members of
the committee and other faculty contested this decision citing the committee's
work in a process attempting to acquire the most qualified individual for the
position. The outcry was so great
that the decision was reversed and the original candidate was hired. Later, the other candidate was hired to fulfill an
"appointed" position.
The lesson that I have
learned from this is that acquiring and retaining a position is highly
political. Furthermore, one should
never assume something is fact until final documentation becomes available to
validate it. Additionally, simply
understanding these realities may keep one from making the mistake of being too
trusting in others. Finally, what
one believes is correct and what one is willing to fight for may be quite
different. For example, candidates
may eliminate chances for employment by indicating they will "rock the
boat". Therefore
it is a wise policy to appear trusting and attempt not to "burn any
bridges".