The SIUC chancellor search is continuing on schedule despite a pending unfair labor practice charge that alleges SIU President Ted Sanders intentionally excluded faculty union members from the search committee.

Steve Scheiner, chairman of the SIUC chancellor search committee, said the charge has not affected the search.

I think most potential candidates probably don’t know about it, and the members of the search committee are not concerning themselves with it, Scheiner said.

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In September, the SIUC faculty union filed an unfair labor practice with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board. The complaint alleges Sanders excluded members of the faculty union to the 12-person SIUC chancellor search committee. A December hearing date before the labor board has been set.

Jim Sullivan, SIUC faculty union president, would not speculate on the effect of the charge on the committee.

Whether the members should be affected is for each individual on that team to gauge and evaluate their own personal feelings, he said.

Although Scheiner said the charge has not affected the search, he did say some applicants have expressed concern about contract negotiations that have been ongoing since March between administrators and faculty at SIUC.

The fact that the University is in union proceedings has been a source of concern, he said. Faculty unionization is fairly unusual at a research university.

It’s one thing to have a place with no faculty union, and it’s another thing for a university that has had one for some time. But we are currently in a negotiating limbo here, and that is a point of concern.

The committee met on Oct. 7 and evaluated 30 candidates’ applications. The search committee began in July to fill the SIUC chancellor position. Donald Beggs is the acting chancellor until July 1.

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Of those 30, we narrowed it down to 12 candidates we want to look at further and seek letters of recommendations from, Scheiner said.

Names of applicants are not being disclosed, but Scheiner said the 12 candidates have very different backgrounds.

In terms of the educational backgrounds and expertise, they are all very different, he said. They vary. Some of them are from large institutions, while others have been at much smaller schools than ours.

Scheiner said about one-third of the 30 applicants are women.

He, however, would not disclose if any of the applicants are internal candidates.

John Haller, vice president for Academic Services, said advertisements were placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education and 794 letters were sent out from Sanders to presidents and chancellors at colleges and universities nationwide.

Haller said most of the responses were generated from the personal letters.

Originally all applications were to be submitted by Oct. 1, but Scheiner said the deadline was flexible and that many applications flowed in during the first week of October.

Scheiner said the committee will meet Tuesday and will evaluate late applications and add to the list of the 12 candidates already identified. He said that meeting likely will be the last meeting at which the committee will scan new applicants.

We don’t want the applications to drag on too long, he said. There may be one or two stragglers, and we’ll evaluate those on a case-by-case basis.

After reviewing the recommendations, the committee will further narrow the applicants to a list of semi-finalists who will meet with the search committee and answer questions. Scheiner said the semi-finalists should be identified by Thanksgiving.

After committee members speak with the semi-finalists, the applicants will be reduced to four or five finalists who will meet with the whole University community.

I’m guessing that the candidates will be here for two full days to meet with every constituency known to humans, he said. And following that there will likely be open forums for anyone who is interested.

Scheiner said he hopes a candidate will be selected by the February board meeting.

We’re hoping to have someone chosen and gift-wrapped by the February Board of Trustees meeting, he said. But my own guess is that it won’t happen until the March meeting because it’s going to take time to bring those candidates into the University.

Scheiner said he did not know how many applicants to expect but he is pleased with the 12 candidates.

I didn’t know whether to expect six or 600 applicants, he said. I think the number of applicants isn’t as important as how many good applicants there are.

I am happy that we have at least 12 really good applicants.