Response to UNM President Search

ear Gail and Fellow Women's Studies Scholars,

I tried to post to the blog but received a message that I am not a team member, so here is my post.

I was the graduate student representative on the UNM Presidential Search Committee which was lead by three regents including Regent Sandra Begay-Campbell, a fine woman leader and scholar.

The committee was composed of half women faculty plus myself and a woman representative from staff. We nominated candidates for consideration, interviewed, and participated in evaluating background checks on candidates. We recommended our final candidates to the regents.

The final group we recommended for the regents' consideration passed through a rigorous process. There was only one woman who made it through this process and she is a very fine candidate, excelling in every way. She can hold her own against any of the male candidates.

That there was only one woman who was recommended reflects on a general situation in the U.S.: there were relatively few qualified women in the pool. We cast a wide net. We were willing to look at the track records of women who had served successfully as Deans, Provosts, and Presidents of other colleges and universities. To get into the final cut they were to have demonstrated leadership of scholastically diverse academic colleges and also have demonstrated leadership in moving their colleges forward. For example we looked for scholars with experience in development, experience in increasing their institution's academic standing, increasing research funding. We looked for scholars who had these qualities and who also possessed good leadership and people skills.

The solution is not to decry our search process. The solution is to make a commitment in academia to cultivate and groom more women, especially minority women, to positions of Dean, Provost, and President at universities and colleges in the U.S.

The regents on our committee are interested in grooming minority and women candidates for future searches such that we can generate academic leaders here, send them out to make their mark, and hire them back as seasoned leaders.

Please support and encourage the regents in this regard.

Cordially,
Una Medina
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Communication and Journalism
Steering Committee
Peer Mentors for Graduate Students of Color

--On Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:08 PM -0700 Gail T Houston wrote:

> http://unmwomen.blogspot.com