Four members of the Faculty Council’s Executive Committee met with four members of the Boston University Board of Trustees, Provost Dennis Berkey and President ad interim Aram V. Chobanian Monday afternoon to discuss ways to increase faculty involvement in future university issues.
The meeting was the second emergency Executive Committee meeting in the last week.
Announced after the Executive Committee released a letter condemning the board’s vote of “no confidence” in Daniel Goldin, the meeting was a chance for the trustees to assure the faculty that they were thinking of the university when they decided to withdraw their offer of the presidency to Goldin, according to Faculty Council Chair Herbert Voigt.
“They ensured us – and I believe them – that they were acting in the best interests of the university,” he said. “The search process failed – and they admitted that. What needs to happen now is for the university to move on.”
Voigt said that Berkey and Chobanian both stated their commitment to the faculty.
Former Faculty Council Chair William Skocpol said Board of Trustees Vice Chairman Dexter Dodge, who was present at the meeting, discussed the new ad hoc committee the Trustees have formed to review governance of the board and the process that led to Goldin’s rescinded nomination.
Voigt said the Executive Committee lobbied for faculty members to be included in the six-member investigation committee.
“We asked if members of the faculty could be on the board either as voting members or ex-officio,” he said. “No decision was reached, but the trustees there did not outright dismiss it.”
The committee will primarily be composed of trustees, but Skocpol said Dodge told the group that the Trustees would enlist outside help to aid the committee.
“The Trustees are looking outside themselves for advice from professional consultants about governance,” he said. “Input from a variety of sources is a valuable thing. They are showing every sign of proceeding carefully.”
Skocpol said Dodge hopes to bring the investigation’s finding to the next full Board of Trustees meeting in January.
“It is one of their objectives,” he said. “Not that the work would be completed by then, but that we will have progress.”
Skocpol, who was on the committee that searched for former President Jon Westling’s replacement last year, said the new search for BU’s ninth president should be postponed until the ad hoc committee’s findings are released.
“I think that the search shouldn’t be undertaken until the university is ready for a real search,” Skocpol said. “We need to figure out how to make things work in the era to come.”
Trustee Earle C. Cooley told The Associated Press Monday that the original presidential search was rushed.
“I take major responsibility for the speed,” Cooley said. “When we met at Scottsdale, [Ariz. for the board’s spring meeting] I was unhappy that things were moving slowly … In retrospect, a slower pace would have been better, but in that event, we would have been accused of dragging our feet to prolong Silber’s control.”
Skocpol said Monday’s meeting between the faculty and board members was “unprecedented in recent history.”
“I would say that it was a new experience having several trustees, faculty members and key administrators together hoping for a joint plan for the future of the university,” he said. “To get together and talk about what points were important to us is a great step forward for us.”
Voigt said he has already seen improvements in communication between the board and faculty members since the Executive Committee released their letter last week.
“I was very pleased when [BU spokesman] Kevin Carleton called to let me know that Aram Chobanian would be selected as the next president so I wouldn’t be reading about it in the paper,” Voigt said. “This shows that our concerns have been heard.”
A Faculty Council meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday. Voigt said he knew Berkey and Chobanian planned to attend the meeting and discuss faculty relations with the full council.
All four of the trustees who attended the meeting, including Dodge, James Howell, Elaine Kirshenbaum and Melvin B. Miller, could not be reached for comment Monday night.