AAUP Criticizes Purdue’s Presidential Appointment

The AAUP published a brief statement on the disturbing news that the next president of Purdue University had been selected uni­laterally by the Purdue University Board of Trustees, following a closed and unannounced process. The appointment was announced on June 10, the statement noted, as a “fait accompli, with no participation by representatives of the faculty or other campus constituencies.”

AAUP chapters across the Purdue University system issued an excellent statement conveying their disappointment with this process. The Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, jointly formulated by the AAUP, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, emphasizes that “joint effort of a most critical kind must be taken when an institution chooses a new president” and that the selection “should follow upon a cooperative search by the governing board and the faculty, taking into consider­ation the opinions of others who are appropriately interested.” The AAUP joins the Purdue University AAUP chapters in their call for openness and wider participation in presidential searches.