Open Letter to the Faculty Senate on the Hiring of Dr. Michael Rao as VCU's Next President
February 20, 2009
Faculty Senators-
If you have not yet already seen it reported, the VCU Board of Visitors
tonight unanimously voted to name Dr. Michael Rao as the next President
of VCU, beginning July 1, 2009. Dr. Rao is currently the President
of Central Michigan University, the fourth largest university in Michigan with 28,000 students and an operating budget of more than $400 million. You'll see more about his background in the imminent press coverage.
VCU's press release is here at... http://www.news.vcu.edu/news.aspx?v=detail&nid=2801
I first want to say that each of the five faculty members on the VCU
Presidential Search Committee were extremely impressed by Dr.
Rao's interview. His communication skills are superb, he believes
faculty should have a strong role in governance, and he impressed us
with how thoroughly he did his homework about VCU before his interview.
We were delighted to find that the Board of Visitors members on the
search committee liked him for exactly the same reasons. Since our
initial interview with Dr Rao, I have personally called faculty organization
leaders at his current and previous schools and they expressed the
utmost praise for Dr. Rao's collegial attitude, commitment to shared
governance, and respect for the faculty, among other qualities. As he
stated in his interview with the search committee, he believes the
faculty are the key to growing VCU's academic reputation.
His interest in the faculty followed through this week, when he called
me one evening and we talked for over an hour so he could better learn
about faculty concerns and the Faculty Senate at VCU. Today (Friday
the 20th), he again met with the five faculty members on the VCU
Presidential Search Committee (Michael Edmond, School of Medicine;
Catherine Howard, Humanities and Sciences; Rosalyn Hobson, School
of Engineering; Linda Corey, School of Medicine; and myself) and
those members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee who were
able to attend on short notice (David Fauri, School of Social Work;
Cindy Munro, School of Nursing; and Kathryn Murphy-Judy, Humanities
& Sciences). Dr Rao listened intently for over an hour as he asked us
to tell him what the faculty are hoping the next VCU President will
accomplish. I think each of us who have talked with him are extremely
enthusiastic about his future as VCU's next President.
In this note I want to also address something that was on my mind
through much of this search process. Since being named to the VCU
Presidential Search Committee in the fall, I have been repeatedly
advocating that there be public interviews with our finalist candidates
for the president's position, knowing that our faculty wanted an
opportunity to participate in the process. I should note that our other
faculty members on the search committee expressed this desire also.
Unfortunately, we were advised by the leader of our hired search firm,
Jan Greenwood, and our consultant, Steve Portch, that public
interviews are now extremely rare whenever a sitting presidents are
candidates and that confidentiality is requested by top candidates
in almost all such searches. Florida, with its sunshine laws, is a
notable exception, but otherwise public interviews are rare. While I
still wish that the faculty as a whole could have met and questioned
our top candidates, I am resigned to the reality that this is no longer
the norm. While disappointed in this aspect, I am overall extremely
pleased by the way the search process was conducted and the level
of participation of our five faculty members in our search deliberations.
I think if you talked to each of the five of us, all would agree that the
dynamics of the search committee were excellent and all participants--
faculty, board members, staff, alumni, and others all made valued
contributions. Despite an excellent pool of candidates, Dr. Rao was
a clear favorite and was supported by every member of our 17-member
search committee.
Dr. Rao is eager to meet with the Faculty Senate and I'll work to make
that happen before our last meeting on May 5th. I think you'll enjoy
meeting him.
Dr. Rao's photo and vita are available here.
--Dan
Dan Ream
VCU Faculty Senate President, 2007-2009