New Appointments move Concord in the Right Direction

New appointments validate old positions...
I'd like to start by tipping my hat to Marshall Campbell for his recent advancement to the position of Interim Director of Human Resources. Mr. Campbell is a very intelligent man and has taken his Student Center Director/Director of Student Activities position to new heights. We've seen him tackle issues from the gameroom to institutional planning and Concord is better for it. I for one think he will do an excellent job in the Human Resources area and if he continues to advance I'd imagine we'll be seeing him as a Vice President before too long. Dr. Aloia can certainly see talent where it exists and rewards that talent. I hope he continues.

It should be pointed out however that the Student Government Association has been calling for a top Human Resources director for some time. It's entirely inappropriate for a university not to have a full time HR Director with only those duties and a clear mission. Dr. Beasley didn't understand that fact, and we discussed it with him on one occasion in particular that I am reminded of. While at his home discussing tuition increases two years ago, he recognized that the HR position hadn't really been filled but he noted "we've seen fewer HR complaints that ever!". Well yes, he was right about that. When you have no HR director, you tend to have few HR complaints. We reminded him that if you have fewer police, you'll have fewer reported crimes but he didn't seem to get the joke. It wasn't suppose to be funny anyway.

With the appointment of Greg "Coach" Quick to be the Interim Vice President for Development ("or institutional advancement") we've again seen Dr. Aloia look for talent and reward that talent. There are many people who've attacked Coach Quick for the football team's rather disappointing win/loss ratio and they've carried those attacks over to his new position. That is not a far criticism of Mr. Quick, because while his football record might be questionable (and i'd be more than happy to discuss NCAA football in another post) if there is one thing he can do its raise money. He had a significant role to play in the June O. Shott field and he's been known to pull in some big money when the school has needed it. Alumni seem to really like Mr. Quick and he's used that to his advantage in the past and I'm sure he'll be able to use it in the future. Even if its only a temporary position, it moves us in the right direction.

Again, this isn't something profound or philosophical. The SGA has called for a Vice President for Development for years, and it fell on deaf ears. President Sean Noland '06-'07 for example took the time to develop a proposal for duties and an organizational chart for the office and presented it to President Beasley and the Strategic Planning Committee. Dr. Beasley wasn't exactly known for his visionary leadership, so the proposal was left behind and the committee ended up folding but the proposals stayed with many SGA members from then on. Indeed, this year we reminded Dr. Aloia of the need for such a position and how the university could not continue to rely only on student fees and tuition increases to sustain the university. Let's face it, we were being beaten about the head and neck by our competitors in terms of grants and research based funding, and we needed a quick fix or else we'd fall even further behind. We never got any real answers from Dr. Aloia about the proposal until it was announced at an 11th hour meeting (literally! it was 11PM) that Coach Quick had been hired. We've yet to see too much in terms of what his duties will really be, but I hope he whips the Alumni Office and Development into shape.

Still a lot to be done...
The recent appointment to the Presidential cabinet and of Marshall to HR Director put us near where a real university ought to be, but there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of hiring and direction. When John Ferguson retired (or was pushed out), we lost the only person working on pre and post grant work (these terms were new to our Interim VP for Business and Finance, which we should find a little shocking). The need to replace this position quickly should have been evident to all of us, but just in case the SGA was quick to place a few phone calls and set up a few meetings to make sure our point was made. There has been an opening posted on the Concord website and I assume the Chronicle for a "Grant and Contract Administrator" which will work full time on grants and contracts. We need a quality individual in this position, and we don't need any interim workers either. We've got a nasty habit of not hiring Concord graduates who go on to get excellent experience, and instead pulling people from the inside and filling our vacancies with interim officers. I recognize (but disagree with) the fact that for classified positions we've got to give current employees a crack at the job, but we must remember that while interim means they'll only be there temporarily stupidity is never temporary.

Concord is not a research institution, but that should not hold us back from seeking research opportunities. Now I've done the song and dance to the state legislature about funding our research, but we've got to do more than that when seeking funding. I'd love for Concord students to work on research projects and for that research to be supported by state or national foundations. This would give students real experience they need to get into a decent graduate school, and would put our name out there as the excellent school that we are. Marshall and WVU shouldn't get all of the money just because they are the biggest schools. We should consider working closely with schools like Shepherd, Fairmont and Glenville in order to combine our resources and seek common benefit from it. It isn't a battle against other schools, but so long as we're pit against each other we might as well fight back. A quality grant administrator should be given the tools and staff he/she needs to get out there and get the big bucks. Over time they will be able to pay their salary and we'll still be making money. This will move us away from tuition based support and towards self sustainability as an institution. Just a thought.

Looking outside our box...
As a rule of thumb, we should be looking outside of our institution to fill positions. Now, as I have stated before sometimes we cannot do that and the law and institutional policy forces us to give classified staff who are already here a chance to apply for the positions first. However, I'm really speaking about Vice Presidents when I say we should be looking outside. I have a lot of faith in some of our Vice Presidents, and almost no faith in others (I'll leave that to you to figure out). However, I do not fault people for having mostly academic experience and being thrust into institutional leadership roles. Just because a person has been working at Concord for a while or because they have a Ph.D. doesn't mean they are the right fit for a job. Interim positions don't really help us in the long run they just allow us to save a buck or two in the short term. When we choose a professor to be a Vice President for this or that, we in effect lose a professor (most of their classroom time) and we don't gain a professional. Interim in my view is only temporary if we are actively seeking to replace them with a professional from either the workforce or other institutions.

As a future member of the Board of Governors and as a Student Government Association leader I support national searches to fill vital cabinet positions at Concord. We'll be having our Vice President & Academic Dean retire before long (after years of dedicated service to two institutions!) and we need to search for a youthful, energetic, experienced professional to take his place. It'll not only serve Concord well in the short term but in terms of long term leadership and vision it only puts us on par or above our competition. We've got a Vice President for Business and Finance who has done an excellent job keeping up with the pack but we've got to find someone who can provide financial leadership and clever solutions to our financial problems. Our professors are best at what they do best-teaching. While we might save a few bucks right now by only promoting what we have "on a temporary basis", it really does hurt us in the long run.