Dartblog

Word has filtered back that various Ivy athletics professionals consider Bob Ceplikas ‘78 to have a lock on the AD job — and as a result certain top-notch candidates have abstained from applying for the position.

Both groups of folks will have already seen other searches at the College where a committee only goes through the motions prior to choosing the President’s well telegraphed internal choice. That was the model consistently followed by the Wright administration (any faculty insider analyzing the identities of members of a search committee could forecast the end result months in advance), and President Kim has kept at it in choosing Carol Folt as Provost. He will do the same with Sylvia Spears.

I can’t over-emphasize how this kind of dishonest process hurts the College’s reputation. In the short term, top candidates won’t join a search procedure that is fixed, and in the long run, an institution that earns a reputation for duplicity does itself no good: the best people don’t want to be at a place that says one thing and does another. Finally, any notion of shared governance between the President and faculty goes out the window when faculty members do not participate in any meaningful way in staffing an administration.

All that said, I am betting that Professor Joe Belbruno has the gumption to run an honest search. We deserve an AD who has already successfully done this job at another institution, and who can bring broad experience and knowledge to Hanover. Hope springs eternal.