The student forum that the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Search-and-Screen Committee offered a couple of weeks back was relatively low in attendance. The faculty and staff ones were better attended, but young people generally do not tend to show up to public hiring forums like these. It also definitely didn’t help that they scheduled this particular event in the middle of a weekday.
However, an individual who did show up – Grant Mathu – put forward a really good idea. Grant served in student government last year and has been active in local government as well. He suggested that, for future UWL chancellors and chancellors within the Universities of Wisconsin in general, there should be some type of formal job evaluation to assess how well such an important job is being done.
Right now, many staff and administrators at UWL are evaluated by their supervisors and others within their department. The idea of evaluating the performance of an employee is pretty ubiquitous within many public and private sector organizations. However, things are unclear when it comes to measuring the successes and failures of a university chancellor in our state.
It does not make a lot of sense to me that the average employee at UWL has their performance evaluated when the leadership does not undergo a similar process. And when Grant Mathu made this suggestion, even UWL Chancellor Search-and-Screen Committee Chairperson Ashok Rai said, “That’s good feedback…I don’t think feedback I’ve ever received before.” He continued, “That might actually get taken a little bit farther than just that search.” This signals that there may be genuine willingness among members of the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents to consider the idea.
I believe that students, faculty, and other members of the campus community would really benefit from something like a transparent annual evaluation being able to occur for whoever the next UWL chancellor is. To me, it would be even better if something like this existed for all chancellors across the state. If you agree with Grant’s idea from the recent forum, I strongly encourage you to reach out to members of the UWL Chancellor Search-and-Screen Committee and tell them you think that future UWL chancellors (or chancellors in general) should face an evaluation process throughout their tenure. You can find committee members’ names and information here.
I hope that you will make your voice heard about this idea as our campus’s chancellor hiring process continues!
Questions regarding this letter to the editor should be directed to Dawson Erken, @[email protected]
