University officials call on veterans to fill open seats

Questions arose at Monday afternoon’s Academic Senate meeting about Provost John Pauly’s decision to fill two upper-level positions without evaluating other candidates or consulting the Senate first.

Last week, Pauly chose Jean Hossenlopp as dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for research and Gary Meyer as vice provost for undergraduate programs and teaching.

According to Pauly, the job responsibilities for both positions called for decisive action. Although he considered a national search, Pauly said he felt candidates from within Marquette would best fill the positions.

“I feel like, just as a practical decision, I needed somebody who had the confidence of their colleagues and faculty and who has a record at Marquette and some administrative background here so that they could start to participate more quickly,” Pauly said.

But Christine Krueger, an associate professor of English and vice-chair of the Senate, said filling the positions was not a timely concern. According to Krueger, a two- or three-week candidate evaluation process would have been more appropriate.

Marilyn Frenn, associate professor in the College of Nursing, said the vice provost for undergraduate programs and teaching interacts with the faculty directly. Although she knows Hossenlopp on a personal level, she said a meeting to go over possible candidates would have been beneficial to other faculty members.

“Administrative decisions that get made without consultation don’t count. It helps us build trust,” Frenn said. “That’s why we’re here. Otherwise it’s not a good use of anyone’s time.”

No decision was made on the issue, but a motion to commit the issue to the faculty council was approved.

Other Senate Meeting Headlines:

• On an update from the previous Academic Senate meeting held in November, Pauly said Marquette had received 19,385 applications for the 2010 fall semester, an increase of 12 percent from last year. 1,875 applicants have been accepted thus far and those applicants found out two weeks earlier than usual. Pauly expects the number of incoming freshman to remain somewhat constant, with 1,925 to 1,950 students attending Marquette in the fall. A 67 percent increase in transfer applications was also recorded from last year.

• Pauly said he expects the search for deans of the Colleges of Engineering and Arts & Sciences to be narrowed down to three candidates for each college by the middle of February.

• The Senate voted for the approval of an accelerated bachelor’s and accelerated master’s degree, as brought forward by the board of graduate studies. This degree will accelerate the best students towards a master’s degree by allowing students to take classes that fulfill both an undergraduate and graduate requirement.