IFA Responds to EVC/P Search

The Irvine Faculty Association has written a letter to Chancellor Drake voicing their concerns over the possibility of hiring Dean Howard Gillman of USC. Dean Gillman would be taking up the position of Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost, a position in charge with overseeing academics here at UCI. This position was formerly held by Michael Gottfredson (whose own tenure here as EVC/P oversaw the "Needs Attention" process, and who has recently come under attack at his new position as President at the University of Oregon for firing administrators in charge of diversity). 

Dean Gillman's current record at USC includes being involved in a unit facing a currently pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint. He has also been found by his university to have taken inappropriate steps in a tenure-hiring process. 

From the IFA:

We hardly need to emphasize that UCI is in the middle of a challenging situation regarding racism on campus. . . . The campus is vitally in need of an EVC/Provost that comes into this situation with a strong proactive record of promoting diversity on campus, including warm relations with ethnic studies scholars; a forceful articulation of racism’s complex causes and effects; and strong interpersonal skills for the handling of racially charged conflicts. In this context, the hiring of a former dean who actually has an EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] complaint pending against his unit and who has been found by a review board to have introduced bias into the tenure case of a minority professor would be a visible and egregious mistake. It would immediately be noticed as such by all members of the community who have been following the “Needs Attention” debacle or working with students who are rightly indignant about racism on campus. These are disproportionately not the members of the community who have had the opportunity to weigh in on the EVC finalists.

Read the full letter here. You can see who is on the EVC/P search committee here.