Syracuse University Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly responded to criticisms of the appointment process of David Van Slyke as Maxwell dean, denying that there wasn’t enough faculty consultation and saying the school at the time needed a full-time dean rather than an interim.

Her comments, made in an interview with The Daily Orange, came after several faculty members said the process of Van Slyke’s appointment was undemocratic and that it lacked proper transparency. Van Slyke was named dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in June, just a week after the disbanding of the dean search committee he chaired.

Wheatly said that “though the timing might suggest otherwise,” the suspension of the search committee and the appointment of Van Slyke as dean were unrelated and disconnected processes.

A number of faculty members said they were never consulted prior to his appointment, while some said they were but that Van Slyke’s name was never mentioned. Others said Van Slyke’s name was mentioned but that they were under the impression he would be appointed to an interim position.

The confusion over the terms of Van Slyke’s appointment stemmed in part from Wheatly’s original memorandum to the Maxwell community, in which she said she would soon be communicating information about “interim leadership.”

“I guess in my mind, I used that word (interim) largely because that is, in many settings, what happens next,” Wheatly said. “That a placeholder, a caretaker, a lame duck gets put in.”

But Wheatly said that as she began talking to Maxwell community members, it was made clear to her that a full-time dean was needed for the well-being of the school, and that one needed to be named quickly. She also stressed that faculty recommended Van Slyke to her as a possible candidate, and she did not prime her discussions with Maxwell faculty “in any way.”

The provost said she heard repeatedly from people within Maxwell that the school needed “forward momentum” on a number of structural tasks, which she said would have been difficult for Van Slyke to tend to if he had an interim tag.

“What I heard from the thought leaders over there was, first of all, really strengthening the relationship with the (College of Arts and Sciences),” she said when asked what those structural tasks consisted of. “And then I guess, sort of trying to improve the sort of functionality of some of the process flow through Maxwell.”

Wheatly also said that appointing an interim dean would have been damaging to Maxwell’s prestige, because “it would look as if there was just a status quo, caretaker kind of a person.”

Van Slyke, who was phoned into The Daily Orange’s interview with Wheatly, added that it would be difficult as an interim dean to get as much done for the school.

“For example, if an interim dean is meeting with the donors, donors will be respectful and meet with the interim dean, but those donors are then waiting for the next dean before they make any decisions about how they want to further support the Maxwell School and Syracuse University,” he said.

Additionally, Wheatly said because former Maxwell Dean James Steinberg was scheduled to step down from his position at the end of June, SU needed to move quickly in naming the next dean.

That, Wheatly added, made it impossible to consult the majority of the Maxwell faculty prior to the appointment. Among the faculty she did speak with, Wheatly said she heard a range of names as possible candidates, but that Van Slyke’s name came up several times without her priming the conversation.

“I had only been here two weeks, so I didn’t know anybody,” said Wheatly, who assumed her role as vice chancellor and provost on May 16. “I would never have just thrown names out there.”

“We have a lot of confidence in David moving forward,” Wheatly added. “I stand behind the decision 100 percent.”

Published on October 2, 2016 at 9:33 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu