We learned through an email message from the Board of Trustees that President Mung Chiang has decided to leave Purdue University and assume the Presidency at Northwestern University. This is an opportunity to reestablish full shared governance at Purdue University and re-focus on our mission: education and research for the public good.
The most recent appointments of Presidents of Purdue University have been secretive and politically driven, with a distinct absence of transparency and shared governance. The Board of Trustees exercised unilateral authority and dismissed faculty input to appoint Chiang. Now is the time for the faculty to push for, and the Board of Trustees to offer, authentic faculty participation in the interviewing of presidential candidates and the inclusion of a faculty-appointed member in the presidential search committee.
Chiang’s presidency saw a marked decline in dialogue between the administration and the faculty, with most communications from the President and Provost reading as dictates rather than invitations to discussion. The University Senate even passed a vote of no confidence in the Provost and his leadership, after which Chiang doubled down on his support for the Provost. Now is the time to return to robust involvement of the faculty in determining the direction of the academic enterprise at Purdue University.
Academic freedom, free speech, and tenure protections were also eroded during Chiang’s presidency. When the administration was given opportunities to defend academic freedom, free speech, and tenure, they declined to fulfill their responsibilities to do so. Now is the time for the faculty to demand that our new President promote and defend those principles.
The Purdue administration also failed to fight against funding cuts inflicted upon many of its faculty and instead intensified its ties with military and computing industries. Now is the time to insist that Purdue University recommit towards education as a goal in and of itself and towards research for the public good.
Finally, the faculty were promised by President Chiang that we would be getting back an hour a week from administrative paperwork. Not only did that not happen, but the burden is, in fact, greater than ever. Now is the time for the Board of Trustees to reaffirm that the role of the administration is to facilitate the ability of the faculty to perform its teaching, scholarship, and outreach activities.
We call for authentic faculty involvement in the presidential search process and a return to first principles of shared governance, academic freedom, trust in faculty expertise, and a commitment to a wide range of education and research for the common good.