Global Crisis

Today in Vitae I have a new piece on the role of governing boards in the academic hiring process. My basic premise is this:

If boards are not just applying rubber stamps to hiring decisions made by appropriate academic officers (departments, committees, deans, provost, etc.), then they have do their work in a timely manner.

I propose the following new norm:

• All approvals must be complete 3 months before the first working day for a new faculty appointment. That includes tenure decisions.
• No one has to resign their position more than 2 months before the first day of a new semester.

This would protect the fiscal year (July 1 resignation for September 1 appt). It would protect individuals needing to move across country, sell homes, find schools, find work for spouses, plan courses, order books, etc. 

There's a much bigger context here about the appropriate role of governing boards at universities in the years and decades to come. We need to have that fight. But first, let's fix this fixable thing.