ASU Chancellor Search Update

News from the front: There is grumbling among the faculty at ASU that an expensive "headhunter" was hired to produce the finalists who've been coming to campus. "Appalachian State is a far better place than some of these candidates suggest." There are complaints that the Faculty Senate should demand an accounting of how much money was spent to produce these (dismal) results.

Judged in the "weak to embarrassing" category ... Kyle Carter, the first candidate to appear on campus ... Michael L. Hanes, the most recent to visit ... and Ken Peacock, the acting provost at ASU.

Hanes, particularly, has been judged "awful" by some insiders. He had not done his homework when he arrived on campus. He's currently president of Georgia Southwestern, which is "practically a community college," an institution with 2,000 students and a declining enrollment. Why, the question is being asked, did an expensive headhunter and the search committee decide that Hanes was up to ASU's standards?

Ken Peacock, already on campus for over 20 years, former dean of the college of business and acting provost, is considered a perfectly nice man, and he was an adequate dean of the College of Business, but he does not have an impressive resume, particularly for published scholarship. According to members of the College of Business, Peacock does not represent current standards of that college, let alone standards now operative to be Chancellor of the whole university.

Stan Albrecht, currently provost at Utah State University, is actually considered "the inside candidate," since he was nominated by a member of UNC President Molly Broad's own staff. Molly Broad will make the final appointment, from a list of three finalists submitted to her from the search committee.

Albrecht raises the small hairs on some napes because of his Mormon background (we're sure that someone at ASU will be ordering copies of his writings on "Mormon Religiosity"), and he has been named in a gender discrimination case brought against Utah State. In fairness to Albrecht, however, he gets very high marks at Utah State (in the same article referenced above) for his devotion to diversity (and see this source).

Albrecht's writing (this, for example) shows that he's actually deeply pious about the Mormon faith.

Still to come ... Daniel Papp, the international relations expert with impressive-sounding publications (and fluent in Russian?) ... and (finally!) the lone female finalist.