By Paul Tuthill
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-970846.mp3
Amherst, MA – The flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts may soon be searching for a new chancellor. UMass Amherst Chancellor Robert Holub is under fire as his three year contract is about to run out. WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports..
Faculty on the UMass Amherst campus are critical of Holub's leadership style, his ability to communicate and question his commitment to diversity. Holub, who was hired just three years ago, has also apparently ran afoul of the UMass president's office because he commissioned a study on the feasibility of putting a medical school in Springfield.
An evaluation committee has been conducting a performance review of Holub for UMass President Jack Wilson . The review is in its final stages according to Robert Connolly, the spokesman for the UMass president.
Connolly said Holub met earlier this week with the U-Mass president, the chairman of the U-Mass Board of Trustees and others to discuss the progress of the review. The meeting followed a report in the Boston Globe that said the evaluation committee had recommended Holub not be reappointed. Connolly said the final decision is up to Wilson.
Through a spokesman, Holub declined to be interviewed, but issued a statement saying he was proud of what had been accomplished during his years as chancellor , declaring..qoute..UMass Amherst is clearly a university on the rise.
As part of Holub's performance review, 200 UMass faculty members filed out a 15 question survey. Randal Phillis , the president of the union that represents professors and librarians said the survey results were mixed.
Unbeknownst to the University President's office, Holub had explored the idea of creating a medical school in Springfield. UMass has a medical school in Worcester. Brian O'Connor, a biology professor, who has been at UMass Amherst for forty years said most people on campus were unaware of Holub's idea..
O'Connor says Holub has done a lot of positive things during his three years, including getting new academic classrooms and science buildings, a new building for the honors college, and pursuing a strategy to raise revenue, by enrolling more out of state students and promoting entrepreneurship.
Before being hired at UMass, Holub was an administrator at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and before that spent almost two decades at the University of California Berkley. He replaced John Lombardi who resigned as UMass Amherst Chancellor in 2007 after clashing with UMass President Wilson.
Umass Amherst has had 5 chancellors in 18 years, although two of them were interim appointees. The head of the faculty union, Randall Phillis says it is not an unusual turnover rate.
Another long time faculty member, journalism professor Ralph Whitehead said if there is a search for a new chancellor, who applies for the job will say a lot about whether this latest leadership upheaval has damaged UMass Amherst's reputation.
University president Jack Wilson is leaving office at the end of June. His successor has already been chosen Robert Caret