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Interim provost to be evaluated by YSU senate committee
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
After months of calls from members of the Youngstown State University faculty for shared governance, a panel of the university’s Academic Senate will evaluate Interim Provost Martin Abraham before President Jim Tressel makes Abraham’s appointment permanent.
At an Academic Senate meeting Wednesday, Chet Cooper, Senate chairman, said the body’s executive committee would meet next week to evaluate Abraham. He said Tressel wants to make Abraham’s appointment permanent.
Cooper said both he and the president came up with the idea for the committee to evaluate Abraham.
Tressel will talk to the committee, which includes faculty from each college, an administration representative and Senate officers, about its evaluation. The group also will submit a written evaluation to the full senate, Cooper said.
Tressel appointed Abraham to the interim position last September, leading to complaints from some across campus. The university had launched a search for a provost, paying about $51,000, and Abraham didn’t apply.
That appointment, along with the creation of an honors college and discussions of merging colleges, led to accusations of a lack of shared governance.
Last December, the Senate considered but tabled a resolution of “no confidence” in the administration’s campus leadership.
In February, the body instead voted on a resolution of “no confidence” in Abraham. That resolution failed.
According to the resolution rejected in February, shared governance requires appropriate consultation with students, faculty and staff before important decisions are made and it is central to YSU’s ability to achieve its teaching, research and service missions.
In the midst of contract negotiations last October, members of the faculty union approved a resolution of “no confidence” in university trustees and the administration. That vote came at the same meeting where union members authorized a strike.