Background and Process:
The SUNY Board of Trustees Guidelines call on faculty governance to elect 6 members of the teaching
faculty to serve as representatives to the Presidential Search Committee. They specify that the teaching
faculty shall elect its representatives "by secret ballot at an open session of the faculty governance group,
at which a quorum of the teaching faculty are present." At Albany, the University Senate is the faculty
governance group. The quorum of teaching faculty senators required at such a Senate meeting is 50%
plus 1, or 20. All nominees who meet the requirements will be placed on the ballot. The teaching faculty
members of the University Senate will then elect representatives to the search committee.
Nominations must be submitted by noon, January 20, 2012 to Professor Susanna Fessler, 2011-2012
University Senate Chair at sfessler@albany.edu with a copy to Gail Cameron at gcameron@albany.edu.
The election will take place at the Senate meeting on Monday, February 6, 2012 at 2:45 in the Campus
Center, Assembly Hall.
Requirements for Nominees:
Nominees must agree (a) to attend all meetings of the search committee; (b) to participate in all candidate
interviews, including those held off-campus, probably in New York City, and (c) to maintain strict
confidentiality concerning candidates in the search process. In addition, the Executive Committee
requests that to ensure independence and avoid undue burden on junior teaching faculty, all nominees be
tenured, i.e. either Associate or Full Professors. Mr. Daniel Tomson, Vice Chair of the University Council,
which will direct the search process, has directed that the search committee must be diverse both
individually and in terms of academic programs. To comply with this directive, if the top vote recipients do
not constitute a diverse group of faculty, the senate executive committee will, if necessary, substitute from
the next highest vote recipients on the ballot.
The tentative timeline is as follows:
1. February: IN PERSON Kick-off meeting, Chancellor's message to the committee, introduction of
search consultant and explanation of the process (1.5 hours)
2. February (same day as kick-off meeting); IN PERSON meeting with search consultant to inform
him/her about U Albany (45 mins)
3. March: CONFERENCE CALL update meeting with search consultant (45 mins)
4. April: IN PERSON meeting where all applicants are discussed and candidates are chosen for
interviews (3 hours)
5. April: IN PERSON meeting OVER TWO DAYS for off-site candidate interviews (2 FULL DAYS)
6. May: IN PERSON meeting for follow-up candidate interviews (1 FULL DAY)
7. May: IN PERSON final meeting of the committee to choose 3 finalist candidates (3 hours)
Please note that, should the process run into the summer months, committee members will still
be obligated to attend all meetings.
Before you nominate someone other than yourself to stand for possible election to the Presidential
Search Committee, be certain that you discuss the Requirements for Nominees, and when you convey
your nomination, please indicate, in addition to the nominee's NAME, RANK, and DEPARTMENT, that
you have discussed the requirements with the nominee and that the nominee is willing to abide by the
requirements and is also willing to serve if elected.
