With a new presidential search now underway, and in keeping with the November 2025 resolution of the Faculty Senate, we request that a member of SACUA or a SACUA designee be included on the Presidential Search Committee.
We make this request in the spirit of consultative leadership, democratic principles, and shared governance. Though we genuinely appreciate that multiple faculty members are on the Search Committee, the distinction between faculty selected by the administration and duly elected faculty representatives is both substantive and symbolic. Elected members of the Faculty Senate carry a mandate from the faculty as a whole. They are positioned to solicit and express overall faculty priorities throughout the process.
Our position is consistent with longstanding guidance from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which holds that presidential search committees should include individuals elected by the faculty, because doing so “broaden[s] the mandate for the candidate who is ultimately selected to become president.”
The University bylaws recognize the Senate Assembly’s advisory role on matters of university-wide consequence. A presidential search is among the most consequential such matters the university undertakes.
SACUA is ready and willing to engage constructively throughout the search. We ask that the faculty’s elected voice be a part of it.
Approved by the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) on May 30, 2026.