News
Nostaja stresses importance of input
Scott D. Nostaja, senior vice president and chief operations officer, has asked that UB not send his name to the SUNY Board of Trustees to allow time for faculty, staff and other stakeholders to offer their views on who should be named as the interim successor to President John B. Simpson.
Trustees, who have the authority under state education law to appoint permanent and interim campus presidents, are scheduled to meet on Sept. 15; it was not known at press time if the appointment of an interim president for UB is on the agenda for the meeting.
In an e-mail sent to UB employees late Thursday afternoon, Nostaja said that while he’s honored to have been asked to serve in the role by the UB Council and has received support from faculty, staff, alumni and community leaders, he recognizes “that some members of the university would like to have given their views as this recommendation was being considered.”
“I have asked that my name not be put forward to the board of trustees at this time in order to give our faculty, staff and students the opportunity to provide input into the priorities facing the university, and the qualities, characteristics, qualifications and experiences necessary to fill the post of interim president,” he said.
Simpson announced at a news conference on Aug. 30 that he will retire on Jan. 15 as UB’s 14th president in order to return to the West Coast with his wife, Katherine, and to spend more time with his family. At that same news conference, UB Council Chair Jeremy Jacobs announced that Nostaja would succeed Simpson on an interim basis, raising concerns among some faculty members about what they viewed as a lack of due process—only the SUNY Board of Trustees can appoint an interim president—and Nostaja’s academic qualifications.
Faculty Senate Robert Hoeing subsequently called a meeting of the Voting Faculty to discuss the issue. Faculty members at that meeting, held on Sept. 10, instructed Hoeing to draft a statement outlining the attributes that faculty members feel are necessary for an interim, as well as permanent, president of the university.
Faculty speaking at the meeting agreed that candidates for both posts should possess “significant academic credentials” and demonstrate outstanding leadership, teaching, research and scholarship activities.
Hoeing said he will circulate the draft statement among members of the Voting Faculty for their feedback. A final version of the statement will be sent to Jacobs.
According to state education law, campus councils can recommend candidates for interim president to the SUNY chancellor, who then makes a formal nomination to the board of trustees.
Reader Comments
Y. Lulat says:
Faced with nothing more than the drumbeat of elitist hubris, generated—it would appear—chiefly by a few burdened with a sense of exaggerated self-importance, it makes sense that Mr. Nostaja would withdraw his nomination “at this time.” The real problem about his nomination is the unexplained violation of protocol to which almost all across the planet subscribe: in any bureaucracy the second in command takes over in the interim while a permanent replacement is found for the departing head.
Posted by Y. Lulat, Dr., 09/12/10
Maureen Jameson says:
Your first paragraph perpetuates the exasperating ambiguities which are swirling around the issue of Mr. Nostaja's purported withdrawal from consideration for the interim presidency. If it is Mr. Nostaja's intention to remain a candidate but simply not have his name forwarded AT THIS TIME,he mnust say so unequivocally. Press accounts, the Senate chair's response, and I daresay most faculty opinion have been based on the obvious reading of Nostaja's letter. Yet the "correction" UB requested in the Buffalo News article shows that indeed this is NOT the officially sanctioned reading. Let's be clear: faculty protest was not primarily based on timing or some putative right to be consulted; rather, it was on the substance of the nomination.
Posted by Maureen Jameson, Associate Professor of French, 09/11/10