While some members of Ball State University's faculty left Friday's public forum for provost candidate William Swart feeling satisfied, others left with doubts.
"I was pleased with his answers, and I don't know if he's the right candidate or not," telecommunications professor Jim Needham said. "I think we have to wait and see the other candidates and make a judgment based on what the others are like."
Swart, a professor of decision sciences at Eastern Carolina University, visited Ball State as part of the interview process and participated in an open forum Friday.
"I'm still a little bit troubled by his style and some of the factors that were reported about the missteps in regards to his recruiting practices," Ralph Baker, professor of political science, said. "I have continuing concerns."
During the public forum, questions were raised about Swart's questionable hiring practices at ECU as well as student enrollment at Ball State.
Three executive members of Ball State's chapter of the American Association of University Professors - Baker, president of AAUP; Ione DeOllos, vice president of AAUP and associate professor of sociology; and Joe Losco, treasurer of AAUP and professor of political science - asked Swart several questions about the accusations of questionable hiring practices while Swart served as provost for ECU.
Swart was hired at ECU as provost by the university's new president, or chancellor. He said they both came to ECU because they felt the university was ready to expand.
"It seemed like [the university] was waiting for leadership, and there was a president there who seemed to be very excited about the opportunity. He, as I, were totally convinced of the fact that we were supposed to advance ECU to a new level," Swart said. "When you're part of a large university system, like the university system of North Carolina, there are flagship institutions, and those institutions are the ones the system focuses on."
He said ECU was not supposed to threaten or overshadow other more well-known universities by taking money away from their programs. Although it looked as if he was hired to broaden the university's opportunities, he said he was told "each specific university in the system has to be mindful of its place.
"The other thing that we had not understood is that when you have a university in a town which is virtually the only thing for many, many miles around - it's an agricultural area - there is a power structure that governs the university. For lack of anything else, I will call them the 'Good 'ol Boy Network,'" he said.
This network controls the university and utilizes the university as a way of achieving its objective - the safe and secure placement of relatives in the university, he said.
"By virtue of the changes we were asked to make by the board, we certainly upset the cards in terms of making some changes," Swart said. "The movement had already started to take place before I got there, to get rid of the chancellor. When I became, essentially, the implementer of the changes, doing what I was supposed to do ... that also upsets the system. Consequently, when the president was engineered out of his job, I was also engineered out of the provost position."
Swart said ECU hired, in the year he was provost, about 200 new people - more than half of who were tenure track faculty members. All of those hirings, he said, were according to policy.
"As it turns out there were a number of Ohio Dominion University people who applied for those positions. Incidentally, you cannot prevent someone for applying in an open search. Well, the president of Ohio Dominion University went literally ballistic. She wrote irrational letters ... accusing me of stealing her people, and she was 'declaring war' on Eastern Carolina University - absolute bizarre behavior," Swart said.
Those letters, he said, were refuted in writing by the president of the university of North Carolina system and the president of the board of trustees.
"The bottom line is I'm still at ECU. The bottom line is a I did nothing wrong," Swart said.
Even after Swart's explanation of the accusations, not all in attendance were convinced of his innocence.
"I think that he did answer [the questions] in a straightforward manner, although the distressing part is that he seemed to admit that he did hire people in an unorthodox manner," Losco said.
TALKING TO ECU FACULTY
Baker told Swart at the forum that he had talked to faculty members at ECU, all of who said Swart created a "climate of fear" while he was provost.
"That's exactly the phrase, and no fewer than five people said that, so he obviously tries to use fear to get what he wants," Baker said.
He said while Swart seemed to be a hospitable and friendly speaker during the forum, he was concerned about what would happen if he was selected as provost.
"Evidently, he doesn't rule that way once he gets power. I've talked to a lot of different faculty all over the country about people when positions are open. He definitely made an impression. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good one," Baker said.
Swart suggested Baker talk to faculty at other institutions he had worked at, not just ECU.
"He said, 'Well, go back deeper in my career,' but he's only been provost in one place," Baker said.
Swart said he did and will take all faculty considerations seriously.
"I was the first provost at ECU that ever convened what I called 'open town meetings' for all faculty and community people to come in and listen to what was being proposed. I'm proud of my involvement with the faculty, and I consider the faculty to be essentially the constituency which I respond to," Swart said.
BALL STATE ENROLLMENT
Needham asked Swart how he would keep undergraduate enrollment steady, if not increase it.
"Competition pricing is probably not something that you can do very effectively, so I would look at what opportunities do we have in developing educational products that have a demand in the marketplace and that our competing institutions are not able to provide as well or as technically as we can," Swart said.
He said he was impressed by the fact Ball State recognizes that it wants not only more students, but more of the best students.
Swart referenced one program Ball State already has - a three-year bachelor's program. While this program does not attract everyone, it does attract the more ambitious students, he said.
"I would go a step beyond that," he said. "I think that to a great of extent, there is a segment of students out there who already know they want to get a master's. Why not have our graduate programs and our undergraduate programs work to see if somehow we can rearrange their curriculum so electives at the undergraduate level could be used with a graduate course and vice versa?"
Swart focused much of his time on the entrepreneurial side of Ball State.
"In terms of positive, I think he offered some examples of how he put together programs that increased enrollment. I thought that reflected positively on his experience, but at the same time, some of those programs, we've already started at Ball State," Losco said.
FORUM TURNOUT
The public forum, held Friday morning in Bracken Library, drew many faculty members.
"It was a big turnout. This is an important position. The provost affects the academic life of a university," Baker said.
The public forum turnout was large, but only on the side of faculty members. Students seemed to be absent from the crowded room.
"I would have very much liked to have had the chance to meet a group of student leaders," Swart said. "I had hoped that it would happen but it was not a part of the itinerary so I would certainly remedy that immediately if I were to come here."
He said he has an "open door policy" for students and faculty to come see him at anytime.
"I think on the positive side, he's got some practical experience that's useful, but I think by and large, his legacy of hiring raises questions of judgment that continue to cloud his candidacy," Losco said.
Needham disagreed and said that Swart had answers to the tough questions that made sense.
"Obviously, he's a bright, articulate person. I think he's also shown that he can identify opportunities close to the university and help the university move closer to those opportunities," Needham said.
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