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VP of Student Affairs appointment process debated among students, Faculty Senate

April 16, 2013
	<p>Denise Maybank, interim vice-president for student affairs, poses in the studio on Wednesday December 8, 2010.</p>

Denise Maybank, interim vice-president for student affairs, poses in the studio on Wednesday December 8, 2010.

Photo by G. L. Kohuth | The State News

At Tuesday afternoon’s Faculty Senate meeting, members recommended to waive the search process for the vice president for student affairs and advise MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon to promote Denise Maybank from interim vice president to permanent vice president of student affairs.

The recommendation, which expedites the process, worried student leaders who feared they no longer have as much of a voice.

Acting Provost June Youatt said there are numerous open positions in the Student Affairs and Services division, and appointing Maybank in a shortened timeline will help fill those voids quickly and easily. She said Maybank is a candidate for a comparable position at the University of Minnesota — also motivating MSU to expedite the process. Maybank has served as interim vice president since January 2011.

The Faculty Senate decision was determined by a hand vote, which tallied 18 votes in favor and 13 votes against.

The decision now is Simon’s, and Youatt said she does not know when it will be made. Neither Simon nor Maybank were present at the meeting.

During the meeting, ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, president Evan Martinak encouraged members to “vote no.”

“One (issue) is that we are waiving the search process and making that decision in a matter of hours, with minimal consultation,” Martinak said after the meeting. “The other issue is that we are deciding on how to proceed with the appointment … with little to no consultation with the students or the university at large. … And that, for me, is a serious problem.”

Prior to the Faculty Senate meeting, the Steering Committee held an “executive session” to discuss the procedure and voted to add the expedited appointment process to the meeting agenda, Martinak said, citing an email to ASMSU. The email did not outline the meeting agenda.

Council of Graduate Students President Stefan Fletcher shared Martinak’s concerns with the waiver.

“I think there should be an appropriate forum for folks to voice positive, negative, neutral, whatever comments about their feelings for Dr. Maybank,” Fletcher said.

Youatt acknowledged the students’ concerns, but said they still can communicate with Simon.

“If you want to say that this process isn’t as fulsome in terms of formal opportunities — that is a reasonable comment,” Youatt said after the meeting. “(But) we can find lots of ways for students to communicate with the president.”

Also at the meeting, University Committee on Faculty Affairs, or UCFA, Chairperson William Anderson proposed the UCFA’s recommendation for funding increases to the faculty general merit and market pools.

The UCFA proposed a 3 percent increase of general merit funds, which is the pool of MSU’s faculty personnel budget distributed to each department for salaries. Anderson also proposed a 1.25 percent general market pool to fund promotions.

Youatt said the next step will be to compare the recommendation to the 2013-14 academic year budget that will be determined by the Board of Trustees in June. The board will need to approve any increases to faculty salaries, she said.

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