This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 4, 2013: Since the Rev. Lawrence Biondi left his post as president of Saint Louis University, strained relations between the faculty and the administration have improved, leaders of the Faculty Senate say.
At the senate’s meeting this week, interim SLU President Bill Kauffman said he wanted to mend relations with professors and work toward the shared governance that was one of their biggest complaints about Biondi, according to a senate member. But Kauffman also stressed that shared governance means a shared responsibility for operations at the university.
A report by the executive committee of the senate praised “an improved spirit of collaboration and collegiality between administration and faculty” since Kauffman became interim president Sept. 1. It also said that Kauffman has been “undeniably responsive to FS President Jane Turner, promptly returning phone calls, emails, and text messages and actively listening to the concerns of faculty.”
While Kauffman serves as interim president, an 11-member search committee made up of six SLU trustees, four faculty members and the president of the student government association has been named to work with the firm AGB Search to find Biondi’s successor. The committee is chaired by trustee Jim Smith.
The head of the search firm, James Ferrare, plans to meet with several campus groups during October as well as holding two open forums on Oct. 14 to learn what the campus community is looking for in its new president.
In a letter to the SLU community after its meeting last Saturday, the board of trustees said:
“While this will need to be a very thorough and detailed process, it remains the hope of the board that SLU’s next president can be selected in the spring of 2014 and can take office near the beginning of the 2015 fiscal year in July.
“It is the board’s intent that the search process be open and available to those in the university community.”
That kind of openness and collegiality was markedly absent during the months-long standoff between Biondi and faculty and student groups who voted no confidence in his leadership. They criticized the long-time president for his failure to work with faculty members and said that SLU had suffered in many respects compared to its peers in recent years.
When the most recent U.S. News and World Report rankings of colleges and universities were released, SLU’s ranking overall had fallen to 101st among national universities, down from 92nd a year earlier.
Even after Biondi announced his retirement, friction continued between him and his faculty critics. During the summer, the American Association of University Professors said that recommended salary increases for professors who had been among Biondi’s most vocal detractors had been reduced by the outgoing president.
While the university said that the faculty salary procedures were the same ones in place for 30 years, where some recommended raises were increased and some were cut, the executive committee of the faculty senate said in a report that Kauffman and Ellen Harshman, SLU’s interim vice president for academic affairs, have established a procedure “that has allowed them to remedy the cuts made by Fr. Biondi to the merit increases and market adjustments for some faculty.”
In some cases, the report said, the full recommended increases have already been restored.
Faculty Senate priorities for new president
While the search committee prepares to gather intelligence on what qualities the new president should have, the faculty senate has already come up with a document detailing its wish list.
Topping the list: “An individual who has a demonstrated commitment to and will promote the Jesuit mission of our university.”
Other qualities include:
- A person who recognizes talent in others and empowers them to succeed; someone who is comfortable with delegating authority.
- Someone who is honorable, principled, and of personal integrity.
- A scholar who understands disagreement and conflict and knows how to use them productively.
- An individual with a national reputation but who is also sensitive to demonstrating good citizenship locally.
- Someone who will serve well as the external face of the university while maintaining a solid and visible presence on campus.
- Someone who has demonstrated successful partnerships with faculty governance structures, is accessible to staff, and listens to students’ concerns.
- A person who understands and believes in the principle of subsidiarity.
- A person who is connected, approachable, and maintains good rapport with others; someone who is open to input, embraces collaboration, and is transparent in their actions.
- A person who is a good fundraiser.
- Someone who will focus on building academic programs and strengthening faculty and staff.
University bylaws no longer require that the SLU president be a Jesuit.
Kauffman, who had been a vice president and general counsel at SLU, took over as interim president when Biondi, who had announced in May that he would be retiring, left the post he had held since 1987. J. Joe Adorjan, head of the university’s board of trustees, said in August that Biondi would be taking “a much-deserved one-year sabbatical.”
After that time, Adorjan said he and Biondi – who is now president emeritus -- “will mutually agree upon a university role and title for Father so that we can continue to benefit from his considerable university experience."