Provost hunt stalled at the starting gate

Five weeks after Provost Michael Aiken announced he would leave the University this summer, a search committee to find his replacement still has not been named because President Sheldon Hackney has not chosen his six administrative picks to serve on the committee. "He has not moved on putting together the committee," Linda Hyatt, acting executive director of the president's office, said yesterday. Hackney said last night could not pin down an exact date by which the committee will be chosen. First, he said he hopes to have the committee established "within a week," and then later said "sometime soon." But, regardless, he said the University community should not hold him to a deadline. Immediately following Aiken's announcement that he will leave the University in June to become chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hackney said he would organize a search committee -- to consider internal and external candidates -- at once and said a new provost would be at the University by July 1. But yesterday Hackney conceded the July deadline he gave himself last month is probably unrealistic. "It's going to be difficult," he said. Faculty Senate Chairperson David Hildebrand also said that as time passes, a new provost will be "more and more tough to find" by the summer deadline. He said he thinks a current dean -- or someone "admirably selfless" -- will probably be appointed acting provost after Aiken leaves and before someone permanent is found. Hackney said last night he has no specific person in mind to fill the interim position. Two weeks ago, Hackney received the names of six faculty members chosen by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee to serve on the committee, but the president said last night that he still has not been given the names of two student representatives by the Nominations and Elections Committee. As for his committee choices, Hackney said he has not yet picked any, but said, "I have been thinking and consulting with people."

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