Black studies director search to be concluded

The nationwide search for a new director of black studies has raised concerns from faculty members within the program and students on campus, as the composition of the search committee and the effectiveness of an evaluation form used in the search are being questioned.

Although the committee includes three professors who cross-list their courses with black studies, there are no faculty members in the black studies program that are on the committee designed to find them a new director.

"I think it's a glaring omission," said Sandra Young, associate director of the black studies program. She said no one has told her why she was left off the committee.

College of Arts & Science Dean Joseph Quinn said people in the program with the vacant position typically do not have a spot on the search committee.

"You usually don't put someone on [the committee] who's going to report to the person we're going to hire," he said. "[Young] and Frank Taylor [current director of black studies] did meet all of the candidates."

Committee members were selected based on their interest in the black studies program and interdisciplinary studies, said Quinn.

The search committee is chaired by professor Christopher Wilson of the English department and professor Diane Scott-Jones of the psychology department. Other committee members include Carol Hurd Green, adjunct professor in the English department; David Quigley, professor in the history department; professor Jorge Garcia of the philosophy department; Barbara Viechnicki, associate dean for finance/administration in A&S; Dan Bunch, director of Learning to Learn; Sheila Horton, associate vice president of student affairs; Robert Scott, associate dean of A&S; and John Burns, associate academic vice president for undergraduate programs.

Charles A. Grandson IV, AHANA Leadership Council president, and Justin McLean, both CSOM '05, and Burnell Holland, Undergraduate Government of BC vice president and A&S '05, are the student representatives on the committee, which Young believes to be excellent representation of the student body.

"They've all been very active, especially in community service," said Young.

Some students showed concerns over an evaluation form distributed at the lectures given by each of the four candidates. Passed out to everyone in attendance, the form asked for the evaluator to rank the candidate's teaching and administrative abilities on a scale of one to five.

Many students attending the lecture, however, had no other information supplied to them other than a brief biography of the candidate.

"Other than how I would rate her as an instructor, the form is ridiculous," said Sarah O'Connor, LSOE '08.

O'Connor was involved in the search for a dean in the Lynch School of Education, and noted that she and other students had been given extensive online backgrounds on those candidates.

The LSOE search committee included an associate dean within the school, which has no policy barring faculty within a department from being directly involve in a search.

Holland, however, said the search has been going well so far.

"The search is pretty democratic in terms of incorporating student voices in a manner in which we feel satisfied our input is meaning something," he said. "I think from procedural stand point it's been going extremely well and we're on the way to making some serious changes in black studies program."

He said the evaluation sheets do not play a major role in assessing the candidates' qualifications.

"We're trying to get a bit of a pulse in terms of how people see the candidate," he said. "I don't think that the evaluations can break a candidate."

Research and scholarship, along with communication and collaboration, were two optional categories on the form.

The administrative abilities question was not identified as optional on the form. Despite one student admitting he could only answer one of the questions, his form was still accepted.

With some evaluators having the benefit of additional information regarding the candidates, as well as being present for extensive interviews with said candidates, no indication was given that a student's evaluation form carried less weight than a committee member's evaluation.

Wilson indicated that there may have been a couple of different forms, with one intended more for student use.

The aforementioned evaluation form, however, was the only one distributed at the lectures, and could not be identified as either for student use or more appropriate for committee members.

Quinn said the form is only one of many factors taken into consideration during the search.

"We wanted something that was simple and straightforward so we get a good return," he said.

Young, who was involved in some parts of the search and attended the lectures, believed the form was used more as providing a starting point rather than as a ranking system.

"I don't think [a student] does have an equal say, it more provides a way to begin the discussion. I mean research and scholarship skills, you obviously can't determine that if you just saw the lecture," said Young.

"It seems like they did it backwards," said O'Connor.

The final candidates are Michael Eric Dyson, Avalon professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania; Catherine John, associate professor of African diaspora studies in the English department at the University of Oklahoma and BC '88; Cynthia Young, assistant professor of English at the University of Southern California; and Jacob Olupona, professor of history of religions and director of the African American and African Studies Program at the University of California Davis.

A search firm was not utilized to attract candidates; the opening was posted on about eight different publications and Web sites. Quinn expects a decision to be made within one month.