Syracuse University Provost Deborah Freund, who was rumored to
be the top contender to replace Chancellor Albert Carnesale, has
withdrawn from the search, according to a Los Angeles Times article
published Saturday.
Carnesale is scheduled to step down from his post on June 30,
leaving the University of California just six weeks to restart the
search.
Freund withdrew from final negotiations with UC President Robert
Dynes on Thursday, citing family conflicts.
“I was so honored to be talking to President Dynes at the
highest levels about this, but in the end we decided it
wasn’t right for the family,” the Times quoted Freund
as saying. “And I needed to put my family first.”
However, the Times reported that anonymous sources close to the
search said Freund withdrew her candidacy because UCLA declined to
offer her husband a faculty position.
One of the Times’ sources said Freund specified that a
faculty position for her husband was a condition for her accepting
the job.
It is not uncommon for universities to create positions for the
spouses of newly-hired administrators. The partners of the current
chancellors of UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside and UC San Diego were
all offered employment at those universities as part of their
hiring packages.
Representatives of the UC said they would not start a completely
new search, but would review existing candidates.
“We have a search committee and a clear sense of what the
campus needs in its next chancellor,” UC spokesman Michael
Reese told the Times. “We even have a group of candidates who
were at various stages of the process.”
The chancellor search committee is comprised of five UC regents,
three UCLA faculty members, one faculty member from another UC, a
member of the UC academic council, one alumni representative, one
UCLA staff member, a UCLA fundraising representative, and two
student representatives.
Members of the chancellor search committee declined to comment,
and the time of their next meeting has not been announced.
Reese added that he did not yet know whether Carnesale would be
asked to stay beyond June 30. The search committee was formed in
December 2005, but Dynes had not yet announced a candidate as his
selection for approval by the UC Board of Regents.
Freund’s husband, Thomas Kniesner, is chairman of the
economics department at Syracuse, where Freund is provost and vice
chancellor of academic affairs. She is also a renowned health
economist and a professor of public administration.
Compiled from Bruin staff reports.