Faculty Senate rips LSU’s leadership

The LSU Faculty Senate introduced a resolution Tuesday that criticizes the leadership and communication of the LSU administration and requests a new provost be identified by July 1.

But a final vote on the resolution will not come until March.

The proposed resolution particularly targets LSU Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jack Hamilton, who is scheduled to retire at the end of this school year. In 2010, Hamilton was appointed provost by Chancellor Michael Martin for a fixed two-year term. The provost is the university’s chief academic officer.

LSU Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope noted the “increased amount of tension of resistance to faculty governance.” Physics professor George Stanley said they are repeatedly ignored and that he has never seen such a bad relationship between a provost and Faculty Senate.

But LSU education instructor Rebecca Owens called the resolution “tacky,” “somewhat mean spirited” and almost an “embarrassment” to the Faculty Senate.

“The goal of this was to make sure the (provost) search was expedited and done,” LSU chemistry professor Bill Daly said. “I think some of these statements bother me … I think some of these statements could impede the search.”

The resolution contends the relationship of the flagship LSU campus and the rest of higher education statewide has “degraded” in the past year. It argues that “faculty have had minimal input on most of the upper administration position appointments and many of the searches overseen by the Provost have been delayed, postponed or canceled … ”

The resolution also states the administration has “disregarded” past Faculty Senate resolutions about Graduate Council membership and the job criteria for graduate faculty members.

Chancellor Martin responded by email that the resolution “is a bit mystifying” because the Faculty Senate leadership has had direct input on search committee appointments.

Martin also noted the provost search is on track to have someone selected by July 1.

“Jack has done wonderful and extremely difficult job in steering us through one of the worst financial crisis in the institution’s history,” Martin stated. “We would not be as sound as we are today without him.”