Commit to openness

Bob Linscheid has a big job ahead of him. As chairman of the California State University Board of Trustees, the Chico business consultant is responsible for selecting the members of a search committee tasked with finding a successor to retiring Chancellor Charles B. Reed.

As CN&R Managing Editor Melissa Daugherty reported last week (“Into the light,” Newslines), Chico State President Paul Zingg is hopeful that the selection process will include a broad solicitation of viewpoints on the qualities the new chancellor should possess.

But will it? When the trustees picked Reed as chancellor in 1997, the selection process took place behind closed doors, with predictable results. As Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, told Daugherty, Reed “got off on the wrong foot,” and for the duration of his tenure had an often combative relationship with both teachers and students.

Linscheid is concerned about having a process so open that candidates’ interest in the position will become public knowledge. He believes some highly qualified candidates may worry that they’d be putting their current jobs in jeopardy if it became known they were looking elsewhere.

But if Chico State’s experience is any indication, that’s of minor concern. When Zingg was hired, the names of the top four candidates were announced, and members of the campus community were invited to meet with each of them and offer their impressions. The process was similarly open and inclusive during the recent hiring of Belle Wei as the new provost.

Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that someone who has the credentials to become a chancellor would be in jeopardy of being fired for seeking the job. The risk is certainly not sufficient to require that the selection process be kept entirely secret.

Indeed, whoever is selected should be someone who welcomes openness and transparency. The CSU is suffering from a multitude of wounds, some of its own making. Nursing it back to health will require cooperation among all parties, students, teachers and administrators. That cooperation will come only if the new chancellor and the Board of Trustees commit themselves to openness.