Provost-elect gets acquainted with faculty leaders

From helping the general public understand the important work of a research university, to making U-M more inclusive, to proposed changes in the tenure clock, Michigan's provost-elect says she is looking forward to working with faculty leadership on issues facing the institution.

"No administration, no matter how smart its members are, has all of the answers. I need your advice," Teresa Sullivan told members of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) during the group's regular meeting March 13.

"We may not always see eye to eye but I will certainly respect your opinion," said Sullivan, who currently serves as executive vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Texas System, and is due on the U-M campus full-time June 1.

As the first externally hired provost in the University's history, Sullivan says she will spend time getting to know the campus before declaring any "revolutionary plans."

"This is a high-risk operation for you and me. I plan to spend the first six months being an ethnographer," she said in her introductory meeting with the faculty group.

SACUA members listed for the incoming provost a number of recent and ongoing issues facing faculty governance, including development last year of an administrative evaluation process, the disconnect between traditional tenured faculty and a growing group of lecturers and research faculty, and a proposal to change the tenure clock.

The latter issue is one Sullivan likely will inherit, as a proposal from the administration still is under review. SACUA members have expressed concern about what they see as an erosion of tenure.

"A SACUA study shows a current system that works," said Dr. Charles B. Smith, professor of pharmacology.

Sullivan spoke of general support for flexible tenure but said a plan to change current policy takes time and careful consideration.

"I don't think anyone should rush into something that involves tenure," she said.

SACUA Chair Bruno Giordani, associate professor of psychology and of psychiatry, said he and other members look forward to Sullivan's unique perspective on issues and the experience she will bring from the large 180,000-student Texas system.

"What most impresses people is her openness to discuss issues and her past experience with faculty governance," Giordani said.

Addressing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and its potential impact on University admissions if the ballot proposal to end affirmative action were to succeed in November, Sullivan said from her experience in Texas, U-M will have its work cut out for it to keep admissions from underrepresented minorities up.

"I've been through it. It's a bad experience," she said, adding that after the 1996 Hopwood v. Texas case, minority students stopped applying and those that had been accepted refused admission for a time.

"It was as if they got the message that they are not wanted," she said. "One thing we have to do is make sure people know they are welcome."

Sullivan said she is doubtful the Texas plan—in which the top 10 percent of students in the state's high schools automatically are offered admission to one of the universities in the statewide higher education system—would work in Michigan because of different demographics.

Communication with the general public will be a top priority for the new provost. Pointing to a recent news article critical of faculty workload and sabbaticals in Michigan colleges and universities, Sullivan said it is clear people outside the university setting don't understand research.

"We need to do a better job explaining who we are to the outside world," she said.

Sullivan was appointed provost and executive vice president for academic affairs
Jan. 3 following an eight-month search. She also will hold a tenured faculty position as professor of sociology. She brings a distinguished record of scholarship in the area of labor force demographics with a particular focus on economic marginality and consumer debt.

For more information on Sullivan, go to www.umich.edu/~urecord/0506/Dec12_05/27.shtml.

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