The search for an administrator charged with supporting students – a permanent vice president for student affairs – is in the home stretch, but the candidates remain relatively unknown to students.
The situation is compounded because the job-seekers have been forbidden to speak with campus media.
“I think this position really represents one of the key advocates for students on campus,” said Deb Carver, chair of the search committee to find a vice president. “It’s the person that has students’ total well-being as part of their concern. This person really is a member of the president’s small executive staff. So this person can really represent the concerns of the students in that upper level discussion.”
Despite the vice president position’s student-focused nature, the provost’s office restricted all three candidates from speaking to the Emerald. One candidate withdrew her interview after receiving a call from the provost’s office. The other two candidates replied to interview requests with e-mails stating they were told they couldn’t talk to the press.
“We want to make sure that all of the candidates go into this process on equal footing,” said Phil Weiler, director of public and media relations. Weiler said the committee doesn’t want any one candidate to have an unfair advantage by being quoted by the press when the other two could not comment because of scheduling issues.
All three candidates were in touch with an Emerald reporter and had equal opportunity to speak to the press.
While each candidate does participate in an individual student forum, Linda Kuk’s forum took place during Dead Week and the other two will take place during Finals Week. Carver said about 20 people – and “very, very few students” – attended Kuk’s forum, and many of them were search committee members.
The search’s late start partially accounts for the unfortunate timing clash between finals and student forums. Because the committee wants to hire a vice president for the 2007-08 academic year, it had to get the candidates to campus before graduation. The busy schedules of the candidates, President Dave Frohnmayer and Provost Linda Brady meant that visits were squeezed in at the last minute.
“You wish you had more flexibility than that, but you really don’t,” Carver said. Carver expects Brady to make the hire some time before graduation.
Brady said someone must be hired this year to be onboard by September. She also said that to wait would be to risk losing one of three “extremely strong candidates… who are competitive nationally.”
“While we would have liked to be at this phase of the process sooner, a search of this magnitude takes a considerable amount of time,” Brady wrote in an e-mail. “Our decision was to move forward with all due haste and provide interested parties with multiple opportunities for input on the three finalists.”
The candidates
The search committee selected the final three candidates from an initial pool of about 25.
Linda Kuk: She holds a doctorate in professional studies from Iowa State University. Currently an associate professor of education at Colorado State University, she serves as the program chair of Student Affairs in higher education for the graduate program.
Kuk’s work has been published in multiple academic journals.
Robin Holmes: The second candidate, University of Oregon professor Robin Holmes, serves as the interim dean of students. She is also the University Counseling and Testing Center director.
Holmes received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University at Fullerton and holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from California School of Professional Psychology in Fresno.
As an administrator, Holmes oversees the University Health Center, University Counseling and Testing Center, ASUO Women’s Center, Career Center and Office of Student Life’s Judicial Affairs Program.
Holmes also works as a project leader for the University’s Center on Diversity and Community.
Janet Gong: The third and final candidate is professor Janet Gong, interim vice chancellor of Student Affairs at University of California, Davis.
Gong has been a lecturer and member of the core faculty at the University of California, Davis School of Education. She also held the role of director of Student Affairs Development at the University of California in Los Angeles. There, Gong advocated for student mental health, affordability and housing.
Gong earned her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.
Gong also speaks at national conferences on higher education issues.
For more information or to give candidate feedback electronically, and for each candidate’s itinerary, visit the Provost’s Web site at http://provost.uoregon.edu/?page=vpsaSearch.