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Faculty members at the University of Nebraska’s Lincoln and Omaha campuses say they haven’t been meaningfully involved in the selection of a new state system president, according to the Lincoln Journal-Star. Ted Carter, former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, was recently named as the single finalist, following a 2016 change to Nebraska law that allowed the university system’s Board of Regents to name one person as finalist for president or campus chancellor, instead of four.
Carter’s vetting period ended Sunday, and the regents could name him president early next month. But the Lincoln and Omaha campus branches of the American Association University Professors have criticized the way the regents conducted their search as violating “long-standing principles of shared governance.” With only one candidate presented, reads a statement from the groups, “it is impossible to reach a conclusive position regarding the acceptability of Vice Admiral Carter’s candidacy.” Faculty members also have said that only two faculty members from the system were invited to serve on a 23-person search committee, and just one of those professors was elected by peers.
Regent Jim Pillen, chair of the search committee, said no choice has been made yet regarding Carter. “I think it’s every individual regent’s responsibility to vote based on their experience with the candidate and their engagement with all the constituents,” he reportedly said. Regents hosted 40 listening sessions before Carter was named as a finalist, and Carter has already attended 35 public forums.
Carter has also called an anonymous letter circulating among professors, allegedly written by someone on Annapolis’s Faculty Senate Executive Committee, “full of exaggerations” and “smears.” The unsigned letter, provided to the Journal Star, says Carter ran the academy “as a top-down hierarchical operation.”
