For years the catch phrase around this University has been diversity. We strive for it when recruiting students and faculty. It is the buzzword that always has seemed to be the thorn in the side of every administrator, especially UK President Charles Wethington.
Last year, when selecting the new chancellor for the Chandler Medical Center, Wethington was criticized for the lack of diversity in his finalist pool - all of the finalists were white males.
So, when the search began for a new chancellor for the Lexington Campus, many called for a more diverse pool, and the administration promised to deliver.
It wasn't all talk this time.
First, when selecting his 15-member advisory search committee, Wethington chose a large number of minorities and women. Before the committee began its extensive nationwide search, virtually every member demanded a diverse pool of candidates.
Then committee members kept their promise, too, by trudging through more than 100 applications and selecting five finalists, including two women and three men, one of whom is black. As an added bonus, all of the candidates except one have ties to UK.
When looking over the candidates' credentials, one sees five very qualified people.
The candidates are Robert Altenkirch, dean of the College of Engineering at Mississippi State University; Richard Edwards, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UK; Susan Henry, dean of the College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University; George Wright, vice provost for university programs and director of African and Afro-American studies at Duke University; and Elisabeth Zinser, president of the University of Idaho.
Wethington should be congratulated for making the famous diversity promise and keeping it. He should be further applauded for going beyond the diversity challenge and making it a point to try to get campuswide input in the search process.
He has invited the chancellor finalists to campus to meet with special interest groups. He said he would like as many students on campus as possible to meet with and have a voice in who their next chancellor is.
We hope that won't be all talk either.
©Copyright 1995, Kernel Press Inc. All rights reserved.