Nov. 15 Open Forum For Chancellor Search

An open forum will be held by the search committee in charge of looking for a new UMass Boston chancellor to seek input on what kind of candidates the campus community is looking for.

“We will host an open forum on [Monday], November 15 at 2 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom to meet with anyone interested in expressing their views on the desirable traits for the next Chancellor,” search committee head Stacey Rainey wrote in a recent letter to the community, put up on the UMass President’s Office website.

“The next Chancellor will need the ability to continue our positive momentum and the process of building UMB into a premier urban public university,” added Rainey, a UMass trustee, who will be joined by consultant Sherry Storbeck of the search firm AT Kearney. “We intend to develop a top-flight candidate pool of outstanding leaders who can galvanize the UMB community and propel the campus to greater excellence.”

University officials hope to have a final list of candidates by spring, subject to the approval of UMass President Jack Wilson and the UMass Board of Trustees.

More information can be found at http://search.massachusetts.edu.

Dobelle Bounces Back

Former University of Hawaii president and UMass alumnus Evan Dobelle last week was named the new president and CEO of the New England Board of Higher Education, according to Associated Press reports.

Dobelle resigned from UH last summer after a bruising battle with its board of trustees. A former Carter administration official and president of Connecticut’s Trinity College, Dobelle was accused of a breakdown of trust between him and trustees. A settlement of a $1.8 million severance package was reached after Dobelle threatened to sue for “wrongful termination,” the Honolulu Advertiser reported.

But three degrees apparently weren’t his only connection to the University of Massachusetts.

Last June, an anonymous person “close to the search” told the Boston Globe Dobelle was “an enthusiastic candidate” for the UMass presidency.

In a short phone interview with the Mass Media late last February, before the presidential search wrapped up in March, Dobelle vigorously denied he was a candidate, saying he was happy in Hawaii and had never applied for the job, though he wished UMass well. “All I do is read the website myself,” he said while on a business trip to California.

He acknowledged that the Globe had called several months ago, and his name had been bounced around, given his connections to UMass. “It’s not me,” he added.

Administrators in E-mail Imbroglio

The Office of African, Latino, Asian, and Native American Affairs alleged at a press conference last week that personal emails between UMass Amherst senior administration officials and former student government officials showed attempts to get rid of the OALANA, according to the Daily Collegian.

The Daily Collegian was given 29 e-mails, which are “under investigation for their authenticity and are the basis for the OAA’s allegations against SGA officials and members of the administration,” the campus newspaper reported. The emails, between Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Michael Gargano and former student president Patrick Higgins, alleged that OALANA director Nelson Acosta more sick days than his contract allows.

The Daily Collegian could reach neither Gargano nor Higgins for comment.