Africana Studies Search Committee
10/21/2022
Dear Colleagues,
As you may know, the administration has been attempting to constitute a search committee to fill three newly-announced positions in the Africana Studies Department by January 2023. While we strongly support the decision to fund these lines, we are concerned that no members of the Africana Studies Department are on this search committee, and also feel that it is unlikely that a successful search—particularly for two senior positions--can be carried out in this short span of time.
Many faculty members have been devoting a substantial amount of labor as part of the effort to rebuild Africana Studies at UMB. We feel that efforts should be well-coordinated and should not create an undue midyear increase in faculty service burdens for a search that is almost certain to fail. Additionally, established best practices and our foundational document, the “Red Book,” suggest that personnel matters, including hiring decisions, fall solidly in faculty purview.
We therefore recommend that colleagues do not join the search committee that administration is attempting to populate, and instead attend the Faculty Council meeting on November 7th to participate in an open conversation about faculty involvement in the Africana Studies Department searches.
Sincerely,
The Faculty Staff Union Executive Committee
For information on the FSU, links to our contract and bargaining updates, and a calendar of events, see the FSU webpage