Faculty senate protests UT job advertisements

10/10/2001

The University of Toledo's faculty senate yesterday suspended its regular meetings between its executive committee and Interim Provost William Free, UT's top academic officer, because of recent university job advertisements that appeared in The Blade.

Faculty members argue that the ads soliciting professors subvert the university's traditional hiring process by not relying on input from faculty on the department and college levels. The ads were published Sunday and Sept. 30.

"This is the only way we could think of to extend a sign of how serious this is," said Dr. Carol Bresnahan Menning, senate chairwoman. "This is not that we don't want more tenure track faculty. It's a question of the means by which this is being done."

The senate passed a resolution urging the administration to advertise no more jobs without going through the proper process. UT President Daniel Johnson, who addressed the issue at a town hall meeting last week after the first ad appeared, said he was surprised to see the ads and will review the situation. The university's traditional hiring process will be maintained, he said.