One month ago, this page argued that the candidacy of Douglas Sears, dean of the School of Education, for the presidency of Warren Wilson College was “a good thing” because it reflected well on the caliber of Boston University.
Now we’re not so sure. While it’s nice that Sears was considered, the announcement of his candidacy came at a bad time for SED: just when the first draft of the strategic plan for the school’s future was being released. The draft — which is initially composed by faculty members, but then revised by department heads and the dean — was apparently so inadequate in its final form that it suggested Sears was not fully invested in the planning process. If he hadn’t been focused on Warren Wilson, faculty members reasoned, perhaps he would have been more in tune with the needs of the school.
Sears eventually withdrew his name from consideration for the presidency, but this did not bring the controversy to a close. Now, a representative of the SED faculty has revealed that faculty members are concerned about Sears’s commitment to the school.
This chain of events has certainly hurt Sears’s standing within SED, a blow from which he may not be able to recover; faculty members’ lack of faith in their dean may become too great a burden for the school, just as Larry Summers did for Harvard University. But if Sears is to remain an effective dean, there will have to be some changes.
Sears is a holdover from the John Silber era, a time when transparency and open communication between the university administration and faculty and students were not the norm. This situation is a good example of the kind of behavior that doesn’t jibe with the atmosphere Robert Brown has promised to cultivate as president.
Sears needs to open up to the new environment on campus by becoming more transparent about his administration and, if he truly wants to remain here, renewing his commitment to SED.
We can’t fault him for his ambitions regarding Warren Wilson — but we can’t deny that this episode underscores significant tensions between Sears and his faculty. If SED is to continue functioning smoothly, he must demonstrate that he won’t be an impediment to future progress.