Manoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee: The concept of Manoa-Driven/Faculty-Led

What does M-D/F-L mean?

Manoa-Driven means:

• The search is conceived of as choosing the Chief Executive of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, not as choosing a deputy to the head of the Hawaii state higher education system.
• The timing of the search is set by Manoa's needs; it is not tied to the timing of the search for a head for the state higher ed system.
• The search process, the committee, and the parameters of the process are determined at Manoa.
• The System President is not involved in the search process.

Manoa-Driven does NOT mean:

• Manoa has the final say in choosing a Chancellor.

Faculty-Led means:

• Faculty recommend the Search Chair
• The Search Chair should be a faculty member.
• The choice of Search chair must meet with SEC approval.
• Faculty take a leading role in determining the search process.
• Faculty should be a majority of the search committee.
• The search process must meet with SEC approval.

Faculty-Led does NOT mean:

• The Search Chair is appointed by the faculty.
• The Search Committee is appointed by the faculty.
• The Chancellor is selected by the faculty.

The implementation of Manoa-Driven/Faculty-Led

Step 1: Choice of the Search Chair

The Senate Executive Committee recommends to the Chancellor a Search Chair, a faculty member. The Chancellor either accepts that recommendation and appoints that person as Search Chair or the Chancellor comes back to the SEC to discuss alternatives. The final choice must be acceptable to the SEC, even if it is not the choice that the SEC would have made. (That is, the SEC has a kind of "veto power.")

Step 2: The preparation of a proposed search process

The Search Chair will study best practices and consider the local situation, including past experiences with executive searches, and the Search Chair will propose a Search Process. This Search Process is a written document which specifies:

• How the Search Committee is to be constituted
• How the job description is to be created and vetted
• A timeline for the Search
• Other guidelines

Step 3: Approval of the search process.

The Search Process must be approved by the SEC and reviewed by the Senate.

General comment: Nothing in the above precludes the Chancellor, the SEC, or the Search Chair from consulting with other individuals and groups.

For example, the concept of "faculty-led" requires that the Search Process be reviewed by the Faculty Senate; the Chancellor may well want to make sure that the process is also acceptable to other groups. The principles require that the Search Chair be nominated by the Faculty and be acceptable to the Faculty; the Chancellor may well want to make sure that the Search Chair is also acceptable to other groups.

The principle of "Manoa-driven" is intended to minimize the involvement of the System office in the process. The SEC feels that the role of the President is chiefly to receive and decide how to act on Manoa's eventual recommendation. Nevertheless, the SEC understands that courtesy, at least, requires the Chancellor to keep the President briefed on the process. If the President should express strong objections to the process, then these objections need to be taken seriously.