Internal picks are a sign of success, not failure

TO THE EDITOR:

I am writing in response to Tuesday’s story about administrative searches (“Provost searches draw from narrow pools, limiting UNC’s options,” March 23), which in my opinion, is an overreaction to a non-existent crisis.

Nothing is broken. No one has failed. No funds have been wasted.

The fact is that three excellent appointments have been made, after extensive national searches.

That all three were internal candidates is a sign of success, not failure.

It would have been far less successful if these same three appointments had been made without having created excellent pools of candidates, both internal and external.

In the case of the search for a provost, the pool is, indeed, limited to individuals with stellar academic credentials, who have had significant administrative experience in first-class institutions. That is a limitation by definition. I don’t know of any shortcuts to that.


James Moeser
Chancellor Emeritus
UNC