Education dept. faculty search revives controversy
The fight over the future of the education department didn't end with the administration's decision last year not to eliminate the program, as was previously considered. Nor did it end when the administration promised to inject new funds into the struggling department. Instead, the debate persists, albeit in the less visible arena of faculty hiring -- a typically low profile, highly personal area, but one that will likely determine the future of the education program at the College. With the formation this fall of a search committee for new education faculty, the process of composing a revamped department has proven no less controversial than the process of deciding whether or not the department should continue at the College in the first place. Last night, the Student Assembly passed a resolution that objects to the current composition and intent of the search committee, requests a voting or nonvoting student on the hiring board and asks that a public forum be held on the future of the education program. In an amendment to the original resolution, the Assembly said the committee should give greater consideration to candidates' teaching skills -- and not the abilities of the candidates to attract research funds. And just in case the stakes of the search committee's deliberations go unnoticed, the New Hampshire section of The Boston Globe is writing an article on the search process. "I'm kind of lost right now as to why people are so upset," Dean of the Faculty Ed Berger said. What worries proponents of the education department is the direction the search committee might be taking.